o  o 


J.M.BUNDY 


o  o 


d 


J.  A    GAR  FIELD 


S     SAKNKS   &  CO     PUh! 


THE   NATION'S   HERO.-In  Memoriam. 


THE 


Washington,  D.  C,  Oct.  3d,  1881. 
GENTLEMEN  : 

Of  the  many  lives  of  the  late  President  (I  have 
seen  ten  or  twelve)  published  during  the  campaign  last 
year,  that  of  Major  Bundy  may  be  signalized,  as  regards 
authenticity  and  general  interest. 

It  is  within  my  knowledge  that  Major  Bundy  had 
access  to  a  large  mass  of  correspondence  and  private 
memoranda,  which  afforded  him  unusual  facilities  in  the 
preparation  of  his  work — in  fact,  a  labor  of  love — which, 
in  my  judgment,  was  well  and  faithfully  done. 

In  making  this  statement  I  do  not  undervalue  the 
work  of  other  writers  who,  with  the  material  at  their 
command,  tried  to  illustrate  a  life  which  has  become  a 
sacred  memory  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people. 

Very  truly  yours, 

A.  F.  ROCKWELL. 
Messrs.  A.  S.  BARNES  &  Co. 


NEW    YORK: 

A.    S.    BARNES    &    CO. 


THE   NATION'S   HERO.-In  Memoriam. 


THE    LIFE 


OF 


JAMES  ABRAM  GARFIELD. 


TWENTIETH  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


BY 

J.  M.   BUNDY. 


WITH  AN    ACCOUNT    OF    THE    PRESIDENT'S    DEATH 
AND    FUNERAL    OBSEQUIES, 


NEW    YORK: 

A.     S.    BARNES    &    CO. 


Iff  I 

PUBLISHEES'    NOTICE. 


THE  life  of  James  A.  G-arfield  to  the  day  of  the  nomi 
nation,  was  prepared  by  Major  J.  M.  Bundy,  Editor  of  the 
New  York  Evening  Mail,  at  Mentor,  under  the  roof  of 
the  President,  a  large  portion  of  it  being  taken  down 
verbatim  from  Mr.  Garfield's  lips.  The  whole  of  it  was 
submitted  to  him  for  approval  before  publication.  It 
had  a  large  sale  durjng.the  carnpajgrtj  being  endorsed  by 
Mr.  Garfield  and  the  "Republican  feiriijiittee. 

The  part  be*£«Ji^<%*c'iifo*I13&  decfcidn'.was  added  by 
the  publishers,  and  is  taken  *  from  'e^e-witnesses  and 
other  contemporary  sources.  It  embraces  a  full  history 
of  the  causes  leading  to  the  assassination,  of  the  crime 
itself,  and  of  the  President's  lingering  death  and  funeral 
obsequies.  It  was  the  first  memoir  in  the  hands  of  the 
people,  and  it  is  believed  to  be  worthy  of  a  permanent 
place  in  every  library. 


Copyright,  1880,  1881,  A.  S.  BARNES  &  CO. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

Garfield's  Noble  Ancestry 1 

CHAPEER   II. 
"  Four  Young  Saplings  "  in  the  Woods  of  Orange. . . ., 8 

CHAPTER   III. 
At  Geauga  Seminary 20 

CHAPTER   IV. 
Garfield  at  Hiram 23 

CHAPTER  V. 
Garfield  at  Williams 31 

CHAPTER   VI. 
Professor,  President,  and  State  Senator 45 

CHAPTER   VII. 
Garfield,  the  Citizen  Soldier 53 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
Garfield  in  Congress 67 

CHAPTER   IX. 
The  Currency  Question 78 

CHAPTER  X. 
Garfield  and  the  Tariff 103 

CHAPTER   XI. 
Committee  Work 121 

15105072 


iv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XII. 
The  Extra  Session  of  1879 135 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
The  Louisiana  Count  and  Other  Matters 156 

CHAPTER   XIV. 
Occasional  Speeches 161 

CHAPTER   XV. 
Garfield's  Career  as  a  Lawyer 170 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Education 187 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Civil  Service  Reform 192 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 
By  way  of  Review 198 

CHAPTER   XIX. 
Home  Life  at  Washington  and  Mentor 217 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Conclusion 228 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
President  Garfield 233 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
Final  Honors 248 

APPENDIX. 

Garfield's  Chicago  Convention  Speech 264 

Garfield's  Informal  Acceptance 267 

Garfield  in  the  Light  of  Phrenology 268 

President  Arthur's  Inaugural  Address 270 

President  Arthur's  First  Proclamation 272 

How  Mother  Garfield  bore  the  Affliction 273 


THE    LIFE 


GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARF1ELD. 


CHAPTER  I. 
GARFIELD'S  NOBLE  ANCESTRY. 

"  In  this  world  all  is  relative.  Character  itself  is  the  result  of  innumerable 
influences,  from  without  and  from  within,  which  act  unceasingly  through  life. 
Who  shall  estimate  the  effect  of  those  latent  forces  enfolded  in  the  spirit  of  a 
new-born  child — forces  that  may  date  back  centuries  and  find  their  origin  in  the 
life  and  thought  and  deeds  of  remote  ancestors — forces,  the  germs  of  which,  en 
veloped  in  the  awful  mystery  of  life,  have  been  transmitted  silently  from  gener 
ation  to  generation,  and  never  perish  !  All-cherishing  nature,  provident  and 
unforgetting,  gathers  up  all  these  fragments,  that  nothing  may  be  lost,  but  that 
all  may  ultimately  reappear  in  new  combinations.  Each  new  life  is  thus  the 
'  heir  of  all  the  ages,'  the  possessor  of  qualities  which  only  the  events  of  life  can 
unfold."—  Garfield's  Eulogy  on  General  George  H.  Thomas. 

JAMES  ABRAHAM  GARFIELD  is  the  natural  and  worthy  heir  of 
a  noble  lineage.  It  is  true  that  his  ancestors,  so  far  as  traceable, 
have  been  people  of  moderate,  and  generally  lowly,  position 
and  circumstances.  Their  names  have  not  been  found  in  Court 
Chronicles  or  books  of  the  Peerage,  across  the  water  ;  nor  have 
they,  with  a  few  exceptions,  figured  conspicuously  in  American 
records,  fleeting  or  permanent.  But  if  virtue,  courage,  adven- 
turousness  of  spirit,  independence,  and  loyalty  to  God,  truth, 
and  country,  constitute  nobility  of  character,  and  prove  nobility 
of  blood,  the  men  and  women  whose  strong  characteristics  have 
descended  to  the  greatest  of  the  Garfields  were  people  of  a 


THE   LIFE   OP   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 


"  raVe  stram^f 'b^&d,.l  to  use  the  expressive  language  of  the 
furf^  wrflere..e»Hl£  actual  qualities  of  race  are  considered.  There 
'rsliotKiHg*4'  lifikyy.b^i' ^accidental  "  about  either  the  charac 
ter  or  the  career  of  the  hero  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  most  wonderfully  developed  specimen  of  American  man 
hood  in  this  country  has  come  to  his  present  commanding  posi 
tion  as  legitimately,  by  the  help  of  as  favorable  influences,  and 
by  virtue  of  as  inexorable  laws,  as  the  big  pines  of  the  Yo- 
semite. 

Let  us  look  into  this  as  far  and  as  clearly  as  dim  or  scanty 
records  and  traditions  will  enable  us  to  see. 

It  is  tolerably  certain  that  the  male  ancestor  of  the  American 
Garfields  was  one  of  that  picked  company  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  who  came  over  in  the  ship  which  bore  Governor  Win- 
throp  to  the  Massachusetts  shores,  and  it  is  absolutely  certain 
that  this  ancestor,  Edward  Garfield,  was  one  of  the  one  hun 
dred  and  six  proprietors  of  Watertown,  now  a  lovely  suburb  of 
Boston,  for  he  is  so  recorded  in  1635.  It  is  undoubtedly  true 
— for  all  the  circumstances  prove  it — that  Edward  Garfield  wras 
one  of  those  men  whose  religion  was  so  heroic  and  practical  that 
they  coolly  and  patiently  encountered  the  dangers  and  priva 
tions  and  sufferings  that  would  have  appalled  nine  tenths  of 
Norman  William's  adventurous,  freebooting  founders  of  the 
nobility  of  conquered  England,  and  with  notions  as  much 
higher  than  those  of  the  Norman  robbers  as  the  heavens  are 
higher  than  the  earth.  But  in  Massachusetts,  in  the  seven 
teenth  century,  a  quiet  and  sustained  heroism  was  so  common 
that  individual  heroes  rarely  got  special  mention.  So,  all  that 
is  known  of  Edward  Garfield  is  that  he  lived  to  be  ninety-seven 
years  old,  thereby,  according  to  Carlyle's  maxim,  showing  much 
virtue,  and  setting  an  example  to  his  descendants  which  has 
been  well  observed. 

Going  backward  from  Edward  Garfield,  authentic  history 
finds  little  to  stand  on,  in  the  pursuit  of  his  ancestry,  and 
speculation  has  been  wild  and  vague.  There  is  a  controversy  as 
to  whether  the  Garfields  were  of  Saxon  origin,  coming  over 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.   GAEFIELD.  3 

from  Germany  to  England,  or  whether  they  are  pure  "Welsh. 
General  Garfield  himself  is  a  strong  evidence  of  the  former 
theory.  When  he  spoke  German,  as  he  did  fluently  and  well, 
no  stranger  would  doubt  his  being  a  pure-blooded  German. 
He  had  the  fair  Saxon  complexion  and  the  Saxon  temperament 
and  physique.  But  this  is  not  conclusive,  though  strongly  pre 
sumptive.  Among  the  few  ancestral  facts,  however,  that  are 
on  record  in  England,  are  those  found  in  the  "  Herald's  Visita 
tion  to  Middlesex, "  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
in  which  are  recorded  the  family  arms  and  crest  of  the  Gar-, 
fields  of  Middlesex,  one  of  whom  had  the  name  of  Abraham, 
which  has  kept  reappearing  in  the  family  in  this  country,  though 
sometimes  shortened  to  Abram.  This  Middlesex  settlement  of 
the  Garfields  is  pretty  strong  confirmation  of  the  theory  of  their 
Saxon  origin. 

Returning  to  Edward  Garfield,  he  had  a  son  Edward,  who 
had  a  son  Benjamin,  who  had  a  son  Thomas.  Benjamin  showed 
the  warlike  spirit  that  has  been  natural  to  the  race,  as  well  as 
civil  ability.  He  was  a  captain  in  the  Indian  wars  and  a  repre 
sentative  from  Watertown,  in  the  "  Great  and  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts,"  probably  a  big-hearted  and  big-brained  man. 
Doubtless  more  of  this  stock  were  of  the  same  sort,  though 
recordless.  At  all  events,  five  generations  of  the  Garfields,  in 
cluding  the  first  Edward,  are  buried  in  and  around  Watertown. 
"  Their  record  is  on  high." 

The  sixth  Garfield  in  line  of  descent  was  Solomon,  the 
great-grandfather  of  General  Garfield,  of  whom  more  presently. 
His  brother  Abraham  had  his  chance  to  show  Garfield  blood, 
by  risking  the  loss  of  it  in  the  fight  at  Concord  Bridge,  which 
was  the  Sumter  tocsin  of  our  Revolutionary  ancestors,  and 
afterward  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  curiously  framed  but 
tremendously  suggestive  affidavits  sent  to  the  Continental 
Congress,  to  prove  that  these  cool-blooded  heroes  acted  on  the 
defensive.  Of  Abraham  Garfield  we  hear  no  more.  Solomon 
Garfield  was,  however,  destined  to  make  history.  As  one  of  the 
self-crowned  "sovereigns"  who  wanted  to  carve  his  sover- 


4  THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

eignty  out  of  the  then  wild  and  "  Western"  forest  beyond 
the  Hudson,  he  "  moved  "  with  his  family  into  what  was  then 
known  as  "The  Wilderness"  of  New  York,  and  helped  to 
"  settle"  what  is  now  known  as  the  town  of  Worcester,  in  this 
State.  This  was  as  heroic  and  manhood-developing  a  business 
as  killing  Indians  or  fighting  "  red-coats." 

Solomon  had  there  in  his  "  clearing"  a  son  named  Thomas, 
from  whom  and  his  wife,  Asenath  Hill,  was  begotten,  in  De 
cember,  1799,Abram,  or  Abraham,  Garfield,  the  father  of  General 
Garfield.  The  father  spelled  his  Christian  name  sometimes  in 
one  way  and  sometimes  in  the  other.  He  never  disgraced 
either  phase  of  that  patriarchal  name.  So  much  for  the  male 
line  of  the  family. 

The  ascent  through  the  lineage  of  General  Garfield's  heroic 
mother,  Eliza  Garfield,  will  show  an  equally  noble  "  strain  of 
blood  "  and  greater  distinction.  Eliza  Ballou,  as  she  w^as  be 
fore  she  married  Abram,  or  Abraham,  Garfield,  came  of  that 
purest,  highest,  most  intelligent  and  enduring  race  of  involun 
tary  colonists  who  were  ever  expelled  for  their  religion  from 
France — the  Huguenot  fugitives  from  the  inconceivably  foolish 
"  Edict  of  Nantes."  It  seems  as  though  God  had  determined 
that  the  Old  World  should  send  to  America  the  very  choicest  of 
seed  for  the  propagation  of  a  nation.  Among  these  Huguenot 
"  settlers"  was  Maturin  Ballou,  the  founder  of  the  American 
family  of  Ballous.  Coming  here  for  religious  liberty,  he  and 
his  associates  were  naturally  drawn  to  Rhode  Island,  the  home 
of  the  man  who  had  made  the  greatest  pronunciamento  of 
religious  liberty  up  to  that  time — Roger  Williams.  Maturin 
Ballou  "  settled  "  in  Woonsocket,  in  Rhode  Island,  and  he  and 
his  descendants,  for  several  generations,  enjoyed  there  to  per 
fection  the  liberty  they  crossed  the  seas  to  find.  James  Bal 
lou,  the  father  of  General  Garfield 's  mother,  also  enjoyed  the 
bold  and  adventurous  spirit  of  his  race,  being  taken  up  as  a  boy 
into  the  wilderness  of  New  Hampshire,  where  his  father  cut  out 
for  his  family  a  home  in  the  forest,  in  Richmond,  just  north  of 
the  Massachusetts  line.  By  marriage  in  New  Hampshire  this 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES  A.  OAEFIELD.  5 

branch  of  the  Ballous  became  "  connected  "  with  the  large 
Ingalls  family,  of  which  General  Ruftis  Ingalls  is  an  able  repre 
sentative.  James  Ballou  and  Mehitabel  Ingalls  were  the  parents 
of  Eliza  Ballou,  General  Garfield's  mother. 

She  was  born  in  Richmond,  Chester  County,  New  Hamp 
shire,  on  the  21st  of  September,  1801,  in  the  same  town  where 
Hosea  Ballou,  the  founder  of  Universalism  in  this  country,  and 
a  relative,  was  born.  The  Ballous,  according  to  all  traditions, 
have  been  small  in  stature,  and  have  been  called  a  "  French 
pony  breed  " — which  means  compactness  and  toughness  of  fibre, 
moral,  intellectual,  and  physical  ;  great  nervous  energy,  com 
bined  with  endurance,  and  a  fine  texture  of  organization 
throughout.  Eloquence  and  the  gift  of  poetry  came  naturally 
to  the  family.  Silas  Ballou,  a  brother  of  General  Garfield's 
grandfather  James,  was  the  author  of  over  a  score  of  hymns  in 
the  Universalist  "  collection"  of  his  time.  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  General  came  honestly  by  his  oratorical  powers,  imagination, 
and  finer  sentiments,  from  his  mother's  side  of  the  family,  while 
he  inherits  the  great  physical  development  and  strength,  and 
the  accompanying  good-nature,  generosity,  and  sense  of  humor 
that  have  characterized  the  Garfields.  General  Garfield's 
father  was  a  man  of  prodigious  strength.  He  was  famous  as  a 
wrestler,  and  never  met  his  match,  though  men  would  come  for 
miles  from  all  around  to  wrestle  with  "  Abe  Garfield,"  as  they 
called  him.  His  grandfather,  Solomon  Garfield,  was  offered  a 
grindstone  weighing  five  hundred  pounds  if  he  would  carry  it 
home.  He  put  it  on  his  shoulders  and  carried  it  home,  a  mile's 
distance,  without  even  availing  himself  of  the  privilege  of  lean 
ing  against  a  fence.  This  feat  was  performed  in  Worcester, 
N.  Y.,  and  while  I  was  at  Mentor  a  Worcester  born  man  called 
who  gave  the  tradition  as  being  fresh  to  this  day.  All  other 
stories  about  the  Garfields  confirm  the  accepted  theory  that  they 
have  been  distinguished  for  their  physical  strength  and  for 
their  generosity,  warm-heartedness,  and  dashing  courage,  but 
without  much  tendency  to  intellectual  feats.  General  Qarfield 
believes  that  he  is  the  second  Garfield  who  ever  graduated  from 


6  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

a  college.  The  dynamic  forces  that  were  to  take  him  out  of 
the  range  of  all  previous  Garfields  lay  coiled  up  in  the  fine, 
sensitive,  religious,  intellectual  nature  of  his  mother,  who  was 
most  fortunately  situated  for  the  development  of  whatever  was 
purest,  best,  and  noblest  in  her,  and  prepared  for  the  great  mis 
sion  she  was  to  fulfil — a  mission  which  she  is  far  from  believ 
ing  to  be  ended. 

When  Eliza  Garfield  was  eight  years  old,  in  the  wild  New 
Hampshire  *'  clearing,"  her  father  died,  and  her  mother  taught 
her  a  lesson  of  heroic  faith  and  vigor  by  taking  the  four  little 
children  and  moving  into  the  newly  settled  community  at 
Worcester,  New  York,  where  Heaven  had  ordained  that  the 
destinies  of  the  Garfields  and  Ballous  should  form  a  junction. 
Among  her  playmates  for  five  years  was  Abram  Garfield,  her 
future  lover  and  husband.  But  her  eldest  brother  James,  after 
whom  the  General  was  named,  had  had  his  ideas  enlarged  and 
his  adventurous  spirit  quickened  by  service  in  the  war  of  1812, 
and  so,  when  the  war  closed,  he  was  wild  with  the  notion  of 
moving  to  "  the  new  West,"  as  forest-covered  Ohio  was  then 
called.  He  induced  his  mother  to  take  her  children  there,  and 
they  all  went  fearlessly  out,  to  conquer  a  new  home.  It  was  in 
1814,  and  their  destination  was  Muskingum  County,  near 
Zanesville,  in  Central  Ohio.  The  tedious  journey  took  six  long 
weeks. 

Now  for  Abram  Garfield,  an  orphan,  and  bereft  of  the  little 
Ballou  girl,  his  playmate.  He  was  "  bound  out  "  to  service  with 
a  Mr.  James  Stone,  who  brought  him  up,  but  he  broke  his  fet 
ters  at  eighteen,  and,  keeping  the  Ballou  girl  ii>  his  heart  all  the 
while,  he  set  out  for  the  Ohio  wilderness,  found  his  "  better 
half,"  and  made  her  legally  such  by  proper  ceremony,  when  he 
was  nineteen  and  she  a  year  younger.  The  building  of  the  Ohio 
Canal  by  the  State  gave  a  fine  chance  for  the  enterprising  young 
giant,  whose  will  power,  energy,  and  decision  were  as  strong  as 
his  tremendous  muscles.  A  born  master  of  men,  "smart," 
active,  and  keen-witted,  he  found  a  place  as  superintendent  on 
the  canal  work,  and  soon  got  to  taking  contracts,  which  for 


THE  LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  7 

some  time  were  profitable.  A  sudden  rise  of  prices  broke  him, 
but  he  paid  in  full,  and  struck  out  for  the  wilderness  of  Orange, 
fifteen  miles  from  Mentor,  taking  a  half-brother  with  him. 
There  was  but  one  house  within  seven  miles  of  them.  They 
erected  a  log-cabin  and  both  lived  in  it  until  another  was  built, 
and  then  went  to  work  to  cut  a  hole  in  the  forest.  There,  on 
the  19th  of  November,  1831,  James  A.  Garfield,  the  youngest  of 
four  children,  was  born. 


CHAPTER    H, 
"FOUR  YOUNG  SAPLINGS"  IN  THE  WOODS  OF  ORANGE. 

JUDGED  by  mere  outward  appearances,  the  advent  of  this 
robust,  big-eyed,  Saxon  man-child,  in  a  little  log-cabin,  in  a 
small  hole  in  the  dense  forest  of  Orange,  Ohio,  was  not  a  par 
ticularly  fortunate  entrance  into  the  world.  But  if  my  readers 
have  sympathized  with  the  views  briefly  outlined  in  the  pre- 


B1KTHPLACE   OF  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 


ceding  chapter,  they  will  agree  with  me  that  such  a  birth, 
amid  precisely  such  surroundings,  was  of  great  good  omen  to 
the  child,  who  was  to  bear  all  the  burdens  and  sorrows  and 
struggles  of  that  hand-to-hand  fight  for  existence  and  develop 
ment  which  is  the  blessed  fate  of  nine  tenths  of  the  boys  and 
men  who  make  the  Republic  what  it  is.  But  this  is  only  a 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD.  9 

negative  view.  Positively,  the  being  born  of  such  a  father  and 
such  a  mother,  in  the  Orange  woods,  at  that  time,  was  a  most 
auspicious  ordering  of  destiny.  Not  only  was  the  daily  fight 
for  a  living  heroically  and  joyously  borne  by  the  father,  but 
with  religious  cheerfulness  by  the  mother.  The  whole  atmos 
phere  of  life  in  that  little  "  clearing"  was  pure,  noble,  and  in 
spiring. 

But  when  the  bright  young  boy  was  but  eighteen  months  old 
this  little  home  of  happy  labor  and  hope  was  darkened  by  a 
sudden,  unexpected,  and,  in  fact,  needless,  calamity,  which 
seemed  to  cloud  all  its  future.  A  fire  broke  out  in  the  woods, 
which  was  approaching  Abram  GarfielcVs  u  clearing,"  near  his 
wheat.  With  all  his  tremendous  physical  energy  he  fought 
that  fire  all  day  long,  by  ditching,  clearing  away  the  leaves, 
or  other  methods.  By  doing  the  work  of  ten  ordinary  men  he 
saved  his  crop  and  diverted  the  fire.  He  came  in  at  night, 
heated  and  exhausted,  and  got  suddenly  chilled.  For  a  day  or 
two  he  suffered  intensely,  when  a  quack  doctor  came  along  and 
said,  "  You  are  in  danger,  Garfield,"  and  put  a  blister  around 
his  throat,  which  drew  every  particle  of  inflammation  in  his  body 
into  Garfield's  throat,  and  the  glorious  man  choked  to  death  at 
thirty-three,  in  the  fulness  of  his  magnificent  strength.  He  had 
fought  fire  like  a  Viking.  He  died  like  one.  Immediately 
before  his  death  he  got  up  and  walked  across  the  room,  looked 
out  at  his  oxen  and  called  them  by  name,  went  back  and  sat 
down  on  the  bed,  and  said,  "Eliza,  I  have  brought  you  four 
young  saplings  into  these  woods.  Take  care  of  them."  And 
he  died,  sitting  up  against  the  head  of  his  bed.  That  is  the 
sort  of  stock  that  James  A.  Garfield  comes  from.  But  events 
were  to  prove  that  the  Ballou  stock  was  of  a  sort  even  more 
heroic,  because  of  a  finer  and  higher  "  strain." 

Widow  Garfield's  situation  and  that  of  her  "  four  saplings" 
seemed  well  nigh  hopeless  to  the  neighbors.  Not  so  to  her, 
however.  Her  mother  had  taken  four  fatherless  children  out 
into  the  wilderness  of  New  York.  She  would  maintain  for  her 
four  children  what  the  giant  force  of  her  husband  had  cut  out 


10  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

of  the  Orange  woods.  She  would  not  "  put  her  children  out,'1 
as  the  neighbors  insisted.  No  one  else  should  raise  that  brood 
but  herself.  She  was  entitled  by  law  to  $120,  as  a  "year's 
support,"  which  she  could  hold  as  against  any  creditor. 
But  even  in  her  desperate  situation  she  scorned  to  take  this 
entirely  just  advantage.  She  paid  off  all  the  debts,  sold  fifty 
acres  of  land,  which  was  mortgaged  for  purchase-money,  and 
saved  thirty  acres  on  which  to  support  herself  and  her  children. 
Thus  she  began  to  wrestle  with  life,  with  four  children  to  take 
care  of — Mehitabel,  aged  eleven ;  Thomas,  a  boy  of  nine  years  ; 
Mary,  seven  years  old  ;  and  James,  then,  as  I  have  said,  eigh 
teen  months  old. 

Only  those  who  have  lived  in  new  settlements  can  comprehend 
how  the  Widow  Garfield  got  along.  A  few  incidents,  out  of  a 
multitude,  must  illustrate.  Abram  Garfield  had  "  got  in"  a 
good  crop  of  wheat,  all  secured  by  fences  except  about  a  hun 
dred  rails.  There  were,  in  readiness  for  splitting  into  rails, 
great  chestnut  "  cuts,"  and  a  few  days  after  the  funeral  Widow 
Garfield  took  her  son  Thomas  out  to  the  pile  of  "cuts"  and 
with  his  help  split  the  needed  rails  herself — the  plucky  little 
woman.  She  was  a  first-rate  seamstress,  and  would  go  to  the 
shoemaker's  and  make  clothes  for  his  children,  while  he,  in 
return,  would  make  slices  for  her  children.  By  the  time  that 
Thomas  got  to  be  a  lad  of  ten  or  twelve  he  was  able  to  ride  a 
horse  to  plough  corn,  and  earned  twenty  or  twenty-five  cents  a 
day,  paid  in  wheat  or  any  other  "  produce."  He  was  a  true 
"  father's  boy,"  and  seemed  inspired  with  an  idea  of  self-sacri 
ficing  labor,  that  gave  him  almost  the  spirit  of  a  mature  man 
and  the  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  support  of  the  family. 
The  sisters  also  were  helpful,  in  all  ways.  The  widow  had  a 
few  sheep.  She  and  her  daughters  carded  the  wool,  wove  the 
cloth,  and  made  all  the  garments  that  could  be  made  of  wool. 
So,  in  all  sort  of  ways  the  busy  little  household  managed  not 
only  to  exist,  but  to  live  well,  as  they  thought. 

But  this  did  not  satisfy  the  Widow  Garfield.  She  wanted 
mental  and  spiritual  nurture  for  her  children  ;  so,  when  a  log 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  11 

school-house  was  to  be  put  up  she  tendered  a  little  corner  of  her 
farm  for  a  site,  and  so  got  what  she  desired  within  easy  dis 
tance  for  young  James,  who,  at  the  early  age  of  three,  went  to 
school  in  that  little  log  hut,  not  because  he  was  sent,  but  be 
cause  of  his  own  longings.  At  the  end  of  the  first  term  he 
received  a  New  Testament  as  a  prize  for  being  the  best  reader  in 
his  class  of  little  boys.  The  school-house  was  plain  and  rough 
enough.  The  scholars  sat  on  split  logs,  hewed  a  little  on  the 
top,  four  pegs  put  on  the  round  side  and  supporting  tke  benches. 
At  first  the  teacher  was  very  ordinary,  but  Eastern  school 
masters  or  "  school-ma'ams"  came  along  and  did  better.  Little 
James  went  to  school  summers  and  winters,  loving  all  his 
studies,  and  working  hard.  Text-books  were  few  and  of  all 
sorts,  but  faithfully  learned,  which  was  the  main  thing.  James, 
for  instance,  whose  prodigious  memory  developed  early,  learned 
Webster's  spelling-book  almost  by  heart  by  the  time  he  was 
eight  years  old.  In  fact,  up  to  that  time  the  main  things  he 
had  learned  were  reading,  spelling  and  writing — learning  the 
language  at  the  natural  period  for  learning  it. 

Even  when  James,  with  his  rapid  growth,  at  the  age  of  ten, 
had  become  able  to  work,  his  fatherly  brother  Thomas  insisted 
on  the  former  going  to  school.  The  mother,  with  her  intense 
New  England  spirit,  was,  of  course,  glad  to  see  James  "  getting 
along  in  his  books  "  as  rapidly  as  possible.  In  fact,  the  feel 
ing  of  the  whole  family  seemed  to  be,  "  Whatever  else  hap 
pens,  James  must  go  to  school  ;"  and  as  for  James,  it  is  the 
common  local  tradition  that  even  if  lie  knew  that  study  would 
*iever  prove  useful  to  him  he  would  have  pursued  it  for  the 
love  of  it.  In  fact,  he  was  seeking  in  all  directions  for  books 
to  read.  Of  course  there  were  few  to  be  had  in  the  scattered 
homes  of  Orange,  but  these  he  got  at  and  devoured.  The  old 
"  English  Reader"  filled  him  with  delight,  and  he  can  now 
quote  from  it,  from  memory,  by  the  page. 

Simultaneously  with  this  tropical  growth  of  intellect,  under 
circumstances  not  so  unfavorable  as  might  be  thought,  was  the 
growth  of  religious  faith  and  sensibilities,  under  the  teaching, 


12  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

influence,  and  direction  of  his  mother,  who  was  what  is  called 
a  "  Campbellite."  And  this  requires  a  brief  digression.  It  is 
not  creditable  to  the  people  of  other  sects  that  they  know  so 
little  of  the  real  character  of  the  class  of  Christians  known  as 
"  Disciples,"  who  number  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  million  of 
good  people,  principally  in  Ohio,  Indiana  and  the  South,  and 
are  called  "  Campbellites."  They  are  mostly  plain  and  unedu 
cated  people,  but  their  creed  is  one  to  which  other  Christians 
seem  quite  generally  tending.  Briefly,  it  is  merely  a  protest 
against  imposing,  as  a  condition  of  church  membership,  any 
human  formula  of  divine  truth.  The  belief  in  the  New  Testa 
ment  and  in  the  divine  character  of  Christ  and  his  atonement, 
and  in  immersion  as  the  proper  mode  of  baptism,  is  all  there  is 
of  the  so-called  "  Campbellite"  faith.  In  practice  they  are 
very  simple  and  apostolic.  Laymen  can  preach,  and  preaching 
is  not  regarded  as  an  isolated  and  peculiar  profession.  As  for 
Alexander  Campbell,  the  founder  of  this  sect — for  it  is  as  secta 
rian  as  any  "  denomination,"  and  bigoted  on  the  subject  of 
baptism — he  was  one  of  the  few  recent  great  "Fathers  of  the 
Church"  who  have  left  their  impress  on  vast  numbers  of  people. 
A  prodigy  of  learning  and  polemical  power  ;  distinguished  for 
the  rare  combination  of  a  subtle  metaphysical  brain  with  keen 
practicality  which  seems  peculiar  to  the  Scottish  thinkers  ; 
bold,  independent,  and  masterly  in  all  ways — his  grip  on  his 
large  army  of  followers  is  as  strong  as  Theodore  Parker  once 
said  that  of  Calvin  was  on  New  England  orthodoxy.  But  it  is 
cot  "  a  cold  clutch."  It  is  that  of  a  beloved  and  full-blooded 
master.  The  influence  of  this  grand  and  powerful  nature  on  Gar- 
field's  early  career  was  strong  and  educational.  It  began  when  he 
was  very  young,  coming  first  through  his  mother,  who,  with  her 
husband,  had  been  converted  to  the  "  Disciples"  faith  shortly 
before  James  was  born — converted  by  the  preaching  of  a  man 
named  Bentley,  who  had  built  a  mill  and  a  store  two  or  three 
miles  from  the  Garfield  homestead.  He  preached  all  through 
that  country,  and  kept  his  business  going  all  the  time.  There 
was  something  very  primitive,  plain,  powerful,  and  convincing 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  13 

about  the  utterances  of  these  unordained  u  Campbellite" 
preachers. 

The  Widow  Garfield  was  a  great  Bible  reader,  and  taught  her 
children  to  read  it.  She  regularly  walked  to  her  "  Disciples" 
meeting-house,  three  miles  away,  every  Sunday  for  years,  and 
took  the  children  with  her.  Later  a  church  was  organized  in 
the  little  school-house  on  her  land.  In  all  ways  she  impressed 
religious  truth  on  her  children,  and  kept  them  not  only  from 
bad  habits  but  from  bad  thoughts.  Anything  that  approached 
impurity  of  life  and  speech,  in  any  degree,  was  hateful  to  her 
beyond  expression.  In  that  household  there  was  a  sort  of  flam 
ing  sword  swinging  constantly  against  all  forms  of  indecency 
and  immorality.  Yet  the  Widow  Garfield  wras  the  farthest 
possible  from  what  might  be  called  the  sanctimoniousness  of 
religion.  She  did  not  bring  any  of  its  forbidding  aspects  into 
the  family.  She  was  not  merely  a  cheerful,  but  a  jolly  woman, 
a  woman  of  great  "  heartiness,"  an  exquisite  singer,  and  had  a 
memory  almost  marvellous.  It  is  General  Garfield's  belief  that 
she  could  have  sung  for  forty-eight  hours  consecutively,  from 
her  large  repertory,  if  her  strength  could  have  held  out  that 
long.  She  knew  an  infinite  variety  of  songs — hymns,  ballads, 
and  the  war-songs  of  1812,  such  as  those  describing  the  fight  of 
the  Guerriere  and  the  Wasp  and  Hornet,  and  all  those  naval 
engagements.  Whenever  the  children  were  depressed  or  dull 
she  would  sing  and  fill  their  hearts  with  vigor  and  cheer.  She 
was  full  of  life  and  of  a  cheerful  and  robust  morality  that  knew 
no  taint. 

But  to  return  to  James,  who  kept  on  going  to  school  and  de 
vouring  what  story-books  he  could  pick  up.  He  and  his  cousin, 
Harriet  Boynton,  read  "  Robinson  Crusoe"  over  and  over  again. 
He  read  and  mastered  "  Josephus"  when  he  was  about  twelve, 
and  was  wild  over  a  story  of  the  adventures  of  a  man  travelling 
down  the  Mississippi.  When  he  was  about  fourteen  he  read 
Goodrich's  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  and  so  thoroughly 
were  all  its  facts  impressed  on  his  plastic  mind  that  he  can  now 
quote  freely  its  statistics  of  the  American  and  British  losses  in 


14 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 


most  of  the  battles  recorded.  Having  so  few  books,  the  study 
of  them  was  intensified.  Even  a  so-called  poetical  "  History  of 
the  United  States,"  by  a  fellow  named  Eggleston,  was  commit 
ted  to  memory.  But  the  exciting  romance  of  "Jack  Hal 
yard  "  set  the  boy's  imagination  on  fire  and  enkindled  the  pas 
sion  for  the  sea  that  was  to  be  worked  out  on  the  tow-path  of 
a  canal,  and  the  story  of  "  Alonzo  and  Melissa"  captivated  his 


GARFIELD  AT  14  YEARS  (FROM  A  MINIATURE). 

imagination.     Most  of  this  reading  was  done  at  night,    afte\ 
his  mother  had  retired,  and  with  her  permission. 

But  all  this  did  not  interfere  with  rapid  and  thorough  work 
in  school.  By  the  time  James  was  fourteen  he  had  completed 
Pike's  Arithmetic  and  got  into  Kirkham's  Grammar.  Then 
came  Denhana's  Arithmetic,  which  he  mastered,  and  about  that 
time  he  began  "  declamations"  at  school.  All  this  while,  too, 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  15 

"hs  made  himself  useful  at  home,  not  only  by  doing  "  chores," 
but  by  work  on  the  farm  of  all  sorts,  including  mowing.  At 
fifteen  he  was  a  large  boy,  strong  and  athletic,  inspired,  too,  by 
the  traditions  of  his  father's  wrestling.  He  was  too  thoroughly 
good-natured  to  be  quarrelsome,  but  he  had  imbibed  the  notion, 
not  that  it  was  a  disgrace  to  be  an  orphan,  but  that  other  boys 
who  had  fathers  and  "big  brothers"  had,  somehow,  an  ad 
vantage  over  him  and  were  inclined  to  "  run  over"  him,  and 
every  sign  of  this  he  resented,  and  fought  instantly  and  "to 
hurt,"  no  matter  against  what  odds  of  strength  or  numbers, 
until  he  got  the  name  of  being  "  a  fighting  boy,"  which  was  a 
great  grief  to  his  mother. 

By  the  time  he  was  fifteen  he  had  absorbed  a  large  amount  of 
peculiar  literature.  Two  sorts  of  books  had  a  special  fascina 
tion  for  him — those  that  had  accounts  of  wars,  especially  Amer 
ican,  and  those  that  described  sea  life  in  any  form.  About 
that  period  he  began  to  "workout"  away  from  home,  espe 
cially  in  summer.  When  he  was  fourteen  or  fifteen  he  worked 
at  boiling  "black  salts,"  from  the  ashes  of  burned  logs.  He 
got  nine  dollars  a  month  and  was  boarded.  Then  he  worked 
in  "  haying"  a  season,  and  took  a  two-year-old  colt  for  pay 
— money  being  rarely  paid.  All  he  earned  went  into  the  com 
mon  stock.  It  was  the  pride  and  joy  of  all  the  children  to  get 
44  Mother"  something,  if  they  could,  but  it  was  not  much  that 
she  would  suffer  them  to  do  in  this  way.  She  was  very  simple 
in  her  tastes  and  attire,  although  she  always  had  the  ' '  knack' ' 
of  putting  on  things  that  would  look  well. 

In  the  summer  when  James  was  sixteen  he  worked  at  haying 
at  "full  men's  rates,"  a  dollar  a  day,  which  was  the  largest 
pay  he  ever  got  for  his  manual  labor.  When  the  haying  was 
over  he  went  to  Newburgh,  now  a  part  of  Cleveland,  and  found 
that  his  father's  brother  Thomas  wanted  some  wood  chopped. 
James  took  the  contract  to  chop  a  hundred  cords,  four-foot 
wood,  at  twenty-five  cents  a  cord,  a  formidable  undertaking 
for  the  most  resolute  boy.  He  stuck  to  it  manfully  until  the 
last  cord  was  chopped.  He  could  "  put  up"  readily  two  cords 


16  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD. 

a  day,  so  that  he  cleared  about  half  a  dollar  a  day,  as  he  was 
boarded.  This  long  and  hard  job  was  done  near  Newburgh, 
on  a  height  whence  he  could  see  the  fascinating  blue  waters  of 
Lake  Erie,  and,  in  his  intervals  of  rest,  as  he  would  straighten 
up,  he  could  see  that  blue  segment  of  the  lake,  and  occasionally 
a  steamer,  and  all  his  wild  notions  of  seafaring  life  that  the 
books  had  enkindled  set  his  fancy  on  fire.  His  wood-chopping 
seemed  dreadfully  dull  and  prosaic,  but  he  had  a  feeling  that 
it  was  disgraceful  to  back  out  of  anything  he  had  undertaken, 
and  he  stuck  to  his  task. 

As  soon  as  it  was  done,  however,  he  went  to  Cleveland,  bent 
on  shipping  as  a  hand  before  the  mast.  He  boarded  a  vessel, 
found  some  drunken  sailors,  and  a  captain  who  looked  a 
drunken  beast  ;  was  shocked,  and  turned  away  and  walked  off 
-.  partly  disillusionized,  not  wholly.  He  happened  to  meet  a 
cousin  whom  he  knew  merely  by  sight,  and  who  was  running  a 
canal-boat.  The  cousin  asked  him  if  he  did  not  want  to  drive 
horses  for  him.  The  offer  was  accepted,  for  it  flashed  on  young 
Garfield's  quick  mind  that  he  could  make  the  canal  work  a 
primary  school,  the  lake  the  academy,  and  the  ocean  the 
college.  So  began  his  canal-boat  experience,  which  has  been 
sufficiently  and  in  some  cases  extravagantly  exploited.  It 
came  along  naturally,  without  accident  or  any  merely  wild 
notion  of  adventure,  and  James  went  through  it  rough  and 
tumble,  like  the  brave  and  lusty  youth  he  was,  for  three 
months,  when  he  got  paid  ten  dollars  a  month  and  board.  Not 
through  any  fault  of  his  own,  he  had  several  fights,  and  invari 
ably  came  off  better  than  his  antagonist.  The  one  feature  of  this 
singular  experience  which  was  of  special  value  to  him  after 
ward,  was  his  learning  to  steer,  and  something  about  the  navi 
gation  of  the  Ohio  River — an  experience  that  served  him  in  the 
army,  when  he  saved  his  command  in  eastern  Kentucky  from 
starving,  by  piloting  a  boat  sent  for  supplies,  when  no  profes^ 
sional  on  hand  would  undertake  the  perilous  duty.  He 
stood  at  the  wheel  for  forty-four  hours  out  of  forty-eight, 
and  saved  his  boat  from  being  wrecked.  When  he  re- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  1? 

turned  to  his  command  with  a  load  of  supplies  his  men  were 
eating  their  last  crackers.  Until  this  time  his  wise  and  devoted 
wife  was  never  able  to  understand  why  Providence  had  put  her 
James  through  his  canal  experience.  Then  she  said — as  though 
everything  in  his  life  ought  to  have  some  great  significance — 
" I  see  what  your  life  on  the  canal  meant,  now."  With  which 
wise  wifely  view  all  sensible  people  who  realize  Garfield's  great 
mission  will  agree. 

Providence  having  quite  other  ends  for  young  Garfield  to 
achieve  than  could  be  accomplished  even  on  the  ocean,  that  had 
been  his  ultimate  conception  of  an  arena  for  his  energies,  his 
canal  experiment  resulted  in  an  attack  of  fever.  He  was  carried 
home  to  his  mother  almost  delirious,  and  there,  for  five  months  of 
illness,  her  wise  and  long-reaching  love  began  to  mould  his 
destiny,  by  gentle  and  insidious,  but  holy,  craft,  to  higher 
uses  than  he  had  dreamed  of.  She  knew  well  enough  that  it 
would  not  do  for  her  to  stand  right  in  front  of  that  strong  will 
of  his.  She  did  far  better.  She  had  no  word  or  look  of  reproof 
for  his  having  gone  off  and  incurred  a  serious  illness,  in  gratify 
ing  what  she  regarded  as  a  foolish  and  wicked  love  of  adven 
ture.  She  was  merely  the  incomparable  nurse — quiet,  patient, 
loving.  As  soon  as  James  got  able  to  read  she  scoured  the 
neighborhood  for  books  that  would  lead  his  mind  into  whole 
some  channels.  She  got  a  school-teacher  by  the  name  of  Bates, 
now  a  prominent  preacher,  to  come  over  and  see  him,  and  the 
teacher  would  instruct  him  in  the  new  problems  in  arithmetic, 
and  so  occupy  his  mind.  Bates  became  an  intellectual  stimulus 
to  the  sick  boy  that  long  winter.  The  mother  had  conspired 
with  Bates  to  get  him  to  want  to  go  to  the  Geauga  Seminary, 
not  far  away,  and  both  worked  artfully  together  to  that  end. 
Finally,  as  the  opening  of  the  school  term  drew  near,  the  astute 
mother  said,  "  James,  you  are  not  fit  to  go  back  to  the  lake 
now.  You  health  is  too  much  broken.  You  will  break  right 
down  again.  Thomas  and  I  have  talked  it  over,  and  we  have 
raised  seventeen  dollars,  which  will  be  pretty  nearly  enough  to 
pay  the  necessary  money  expenses  of  your  going  over  to  Chester 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.   JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  19 

to  school."  She  had  also  arranged  with  her  sister  to  have  two 
of  her  boys  go,  so  as  to  have  the  three  ' '  club  together' '  and  board 
themselves  with  the  supplies  they  could  take.  "But,"  she 
adroitly  added,  "  if  you  feel  still  determined  to  go  on  the  lake, 
why,  go  over  there  to  school  this  year,  and  by  that  time  I  hope 
your  health  will  be  restored.  Then,  if  you  go  to  work  in  haying 
or  carpentering" — for  James  had  already  learned  the  latter  in 
building  a  house  for  his  mother — "  you  will  make  enough  to 
go  in  the  fall  term,  and  then  I  think  you  can  teach  district 
school ;  and,  if  you  want  to,  you  can  sail  on  the  lake  summers, 
and  when  the  lake  is  frozen  over  you  can  teach  school. ' ' 

She  knew  how  to  guide  her  young  Viking  without  showing 
her  purpose.  The  idea  of  earning  something  and  being  some 
body  came  in  on  him  like  a  passion,  for  he  had  felt  bitterly  his 
dependence,  and  all  his  hard  earnings  had  gone  to  pay  doctors' 
bills,  even  his  colt.  Against  this  penniless  dependence  his  whole 
soul  revolted.  And  so  the  mother  conquered,  and  the  destiny 
of  the  son,  from  that  date  to  now,  has  been  rapidly  upward.  To 
Geauga  Seminary  he  would  go,  and  "  Mother"  Garfield's  heart 
was  full  of  joy. 


CHAPTER    III. 

AT     GEAUGA     SEMINARY. 

THUS,  in  the  spring  of  his  eighteenth  year,  March,  1849, 
James  and  his  two  cousins,  well  provisioned,  went  ten  miles 
over  to  Chester,  to  get  all  they  could  out  of  the  Geauga  Semi 
nary,  an  institution  founded  and  supported  by  the  "  Free  Will 
Baptists."  They  rented  a  room  with  a  cook-stove  and  two  beds, 
in  a  cheap  old  house,  partly  tenanted  by  a  poor  widow,  who 
contracted  to  do  their  cooking  and  washing  at  very  low  rates. 
The  academy  itself  was  considerable  of  an  institution  for  the 
time  and  place,  and  was  enriched  by  the  possession  of  a  library 
of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  volumes,  which  latter  fact  startled 
and  delighted  young  Garfield.  But  he  soon  made  another  dis 
covery  in  the  school,  the  importance  of  which  dawned  on  him 
only  very  gradually,  and  which  turned  out  to  be  the  greatest 
discovery  of  his  life-time.  He  found  there  a  modest,  studious, 
somewhat  reserved  girl,  of  about  his  own  age,  named  Lucretia 
Rudolph.  He  only  met  her,  however,  in  recitations,  and  as 
he  felt  "  green"  and  awkward,  and  she  was  absorbed  mostly  in 
her  studies,  the  acquaintance  wras,  for  some  time,  without  op 
portunities  or  provocations  for  anything  more. 

When  the  term  closed  James  went  to  work  haying,  and  took 
a  job  with  a  carpenter.  There  was  a  house  to  be  built  in  Ches 
ter,  and  he  got  the  job  of  cutting  out  the  siding  at  two  cents 
a  board.  He  went  back  to  the  fall  term  and  fought  his  way 
through  to  the  end  of  the  year,  paying  all  his  expenses,  and 
having  a  few  dollars  left.  He  then  presented  himself  for  exam 
ination,  to  get  a  certificate  to  teach  school,  which  he  readily 
obtained,  and  taught  his  first  district  school,  beginning  two 
weeks  before  he  was  eighteen.  He  received  twelve  dollars  a 
month  and  "  boarded  around." 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  21 

He  had  some  tough  customers  to  manage  in  this  school. 
There  were  several  boys  in  it  with  more  brawn  than  brains,  who 
conceived  it  to  be  their  chief  duty  and  pleasure  to  bully  the 
schoolmaster.  He  labored  under  the  special  disadvantage  of 
teaching  in  the  school  district  next  to  where  he  had  been  born 
and  brought  up,  and  where  everybody  knew  him  as  "  Jim1'  Gar- 
field.  The  winter  before  the  teacher  had  been  turned  out  by 
the  boys — that  is,  his  pdsition  was  made  so  hot  that  he  was  glad 
to  leave.  There  was  constant  skirmishing  between  the  u  big 
boys1'  and  young  Garfield  for  about  a  fortnight,  until  one  of 
them  flatly  refused  to  obey,  and  Garfield  whipped  him.  As  the 
mutineer  was  returning  to  his  seat  he  caught  a  heavy  billet  of 
wood,  and  turned,  without  Garfield's  knowledge,  when  the 
latter  heard  a  shriek  from  the  scholars,  looked  around,  and  saw 
the  big  club,  held  in  both  hands,  falling  on  his  head,  with 
a  force  that  might  well  have  proved  fatal,  had  not  Garfield 
thrown  up  his  arm  and  warded  it  off.  His  arm  was  nearly 
broken,  but  with  the  other  he  threw  the  mutineer  so  that  he 
fell  on  his  back  ;  then  jerked  him  on  his  feet,  seized  and  threw 
him,  put  his  knee  on  his  breast  and  hand  on  his  throat,  and 
said,  "Now,  sir,  I  shall  whip  you  until  one  of  two  things 
occurs  :  either  till  you  die  or  until  you  absolutely  submit  to  the 
order.1'  Then  he  gave  the  scholar  a  series  of  heavy  blows  until 
he  surrendered.  And  as  there  were  several  large  boys  who 
seemed  to  be  in  conspiracy  with  the  flogged  ringleader,  Gar- 
field  added,  "  If  there  is  any  scholar  here  who  expects,  at  any 
time,  to  make  any  sort  of  disturbance,  come  on  now  and  settle 
here."  The  school  was  quiet  and  orderly  for  the  rest  of  the 
winter.  It  was  "  Jim"  Garfield  no  longer,  but  "  the  master." 

During  that  winter  Garfield  did  a  good  deal  of  reading. 
Pollock's  "  Course  of  Time"  impressed  him  very  much,  and  he 
learned  it  nearly  all  by  heart.  It  was  during  that  winter  that 
he  fell  under  the  influence  of  a  "Disciples"  preacher  who 
held  forth  in  the  little  school-house.  The  preacher  was  a  good 
solid  old  man,  the  incarnation  of  good  sense,  and  had  something 
about  him  that  touched  the  young  school-master.  For  some 


22  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

years  previous  the  latter  had  been  somewhat  "  offish"  on  the 
subject  of  religion  ;  felt  the  irksomeness  of  its  pressure,  and 
absented  himself  from  church.  A  strange  feeling  came  over 
him  that  this  plain  old  preacher  had  come  to  get  hold  of  a  life 
that  was  likely  to  run  to  waste.  The  preacher  touched  his 
sympathies  and  moved  his  heart.  He  "  came  out/'  made  a 
profession  of  religion,  and  was  baptized  in  the  faith  of  his 
mother.  He  was  then  a  few  months  pas't  eighteen.  To  use  the 
General's  own  language  :  "Of  course,  that  settled  canal,  and 
lake,  and  sea,  and  everything."  A  new  life,  with  new  thoughts 
and  ambitions,  dawned  on  him.  He  resolved  at  once  that  he 
would  have  the  best  education  that  it  was  in  the  power  of 
work  to  give.  With  this  high  purpose  he  went  back  to  Chester 
and  began  his  new  life.  He  remained  there  during  the  spring 
and  next  fall,  making  four  terms  at  Chester,  and  taught  again 
the  next  winter,  getting  $16  a  month. 

By  that  time  the  institution  at  Hiram,  which  was  the  product, 
mainly,  of  the  educational  zeal  and  liberality  of  the  "  Disciples," 
was  being  started,  and  the  fresh  enthusiasm  it  called  out  drew 
Garfield  to  it,  as,  later  on,  the  Republican  Party,  in  its  fresh 
enthusiasms,  called  him  to  it. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GARFIELD    AT    HIRAM. 

HIRAM,  and  the  institution  which  has  been  known  under  the 
successive  names  of  the  "  Hiram  Eclectic  Institute"  and 
"  Hiram  College,11  deserves  a  separate  chapter.  The  spontane 
ous  outgrowth  from  a  community  that  was  exceptionally 
devoted  to  every  attainable  means  of  intellectual  and  religious 
culture,  it  also  largely  owed  its  inspiration  to  that  great-minded 
teacher  and  apostle,  Alexander  Campbell,  who  was  not  only  an 
educational  zealot,  but  whose  original  and  powerful  mind  im 
pressed  itself  on  all  his  more  enlightened  followers  as  no  other 
mind,  in  recent  times,  that  I  know  of,  has  impressed  itself. 
Hiram,  from  the  beginning,  was  more  a  hive  of  busy,  earnest, 
and  co-operative  workers  after  knowledge  than  a  mere  "  insti 
tute,"  or  "  college.'1  To  Garfield  it  offered  opportunities  and 
incitements  to  development  of  both  brain  and  heart  such  as  no 
other  place  would  have  given.  He  could  there  be  both  pupil 
and  teacher.  An  atmosphere  of  wholesome  and  cheerful  relig 
ious  enthusiasm  and  of  pure  domestic  life  pervaded  the  place. 
There,  too,  he  came  to  know  thoroughly  the  hard-working  and 
proficient  student  who  was  to  be  his  wife. 

He  had  studied  Latin  two  terms — that  is,  he  had  gone  pain 
fully  through  the  paradigms  of  the  grammar  and  the  rules, 
which  he  had  mastered,  but  had  not  gone  into  any  reading  book. 
He  had  gone  through  algebra,  natural  philosophy,  and  botany, 
and  had  collected  a  fine  herbarium.  He  had  also  pursued 
other  studies,  including  a  term  of  Greek. 

When  young  Garfield  first  went  to  Hiram,  he  had  studied 
Latin  grammar  so  far  that  he  understood  the  conjugations  and 
declensions,  but  had  not  learned  the  construction  of  sentences. 
He  had  his  option  between  entering  a  primary  class  and  going 


24  THE  LIFE  OF  GEK.  JAMES  A.  GAEFIELD. 

over  the  work  which  he  had  already  done,  or  of  going  into 
an  advanced  class,  which  would  compel  him  at  once  to  begin 
the  translation  of  Cesar's  Commentaries.  He  chose  the  more 
difficult  task.  But  when  he  looked  over  the  first  lesson  of 
translation,  about  six  lines,  he  realized  for  the  first  time  what 
an  unknown  quantity  the  work  of  translation  was.  But  he  sat 
down  to  face  this  difficulty  with  that  quiet,  bull-dog  tenacity 
And  purpose  which  has  so  often  pulled  him  through.  Imme 
diately  after  supper  he  took  a  candle  and  his  text-book  and 
went  up  to  the  recitation  room  in  an  upper  story,  so  as  to  wres 
tle  alone  with  this  new  task.  He  had  four  room-mates  in  the 
room  which  he  occupied  in  the  basement.  Sitting  down  in 
front  of  a  table  w~ith  his  Caesar,  he  began  his  attack  by  getting 
from  a  glossary  the  signification  of  each  word.  But  this  did 
not  solve  the  problem.  So  he  wrote  out  each  word  on  a  sepa 
rate  piece  of  paper,  and  arranged  and  rearranged  these  slips 
very  much  as  he  might  work  any  other  puzzle.  Finding  that 
one  signification  would  not  answer,  he  wrote  down  all  the 
various  significations  of  each  word,  which,  of  course,  increased 
his  difficulties  in  something  like  a  geometrical  ratio.  But  he 
kept  sullenly  and  determinedly  at  it,  and  worked  away  hour 
after  hour  without  moving  or  looking  away  from  his  task, 
until,  about  midnight,  it  wTas  accomplished.  Then  for  the  first 
time  he  came  back  to  self  consciousness.  He  found  that  he  did 
not  know  where  he  was  or  how  he  had  come  there.  His  candle 
was  making  its  last  expiring  flickers.  But  one  by  one  recollec 
tions  of  his  home,  of  his  journey  to  Orange,  and  of  his  coming 
to  Hiram,  came  back  to  him,  and  he  then  realized  that  he  was 
a  student  at  Hiram,  and  that  he  had  conquered  the  most  appal 
ling  task  of  his  life. 

It  has  been  said  that  "  there  are  some  women  whom  to  know 
well  is  a  liberal  education."  The  truth  of  this  has  been  illus 
trated  in  the  biographies  of  many  great  men.  It  is  known  by 
every  man  who  has  had  any  considerable  acquaintance  with  men 
of  decided  force  and  elevation  of  character.  When  this  sort  of 
"  liberal  education"  comes  at  the  plastic  and  forming  period  of 


THE   LIFE   OP   GEtf.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  25 

the  life  of  an  ingenuous  young  man  whose  nature  is  receptive 
and  impressionable,  and  whose  energies  and  ambitions  are  en 
kindled  by  the  pure  tuition  of  a  noble  and  religious  woman,  of 
great  brains  and  attainments,  the  results  are  such  as  can  be 
attained  through  no  other  process. 

It  was  Garfield's  good  fortune  to  have  such  a  woman  as 
teacher,  counsellor,  fellow-student,  and  friend  at  the  most  criti 
cal  and  forming  period  of  his  life.  She  was  so  much  his  senior 
in  years,  had  such  elevation  and  decision  of  character,  and  was 
so  resolute  of  purpose  to  maintain  the  "•  maiden  widowhood  " 
occasioned  by  the  death  of  her  affianced  before  marriage,  that 
the  closest  intimacy  of  friendship  with  young  Garfield  could  not 
be  in  the  slightest  degree  misunderstood,  even  by  the  gossips. 
This  woman,  Miss  Aimed  a  A.  Booth,  achieved  a  position  in 
the  "Western  Reserve"  something  like  that  which  was  held 
by  Margaret  Fuller  in  New  England,  so  far  as  regards  multifa- 
riousness  of  intellectual  acquisitions,  decision  of  character,  and 
influence  over  intellectual  men. 

The  range  of  her  studies  and  the  zeal  with  which  she  pursued 
so  many  branches  of  knowledge  were  fully  as  notable  as  Marga 
ret  Fuller  displayed.  The  divergence  in  their  paths  was  favor 
able  to  the  peace  and  usefulness  of  Miss  Booth,  whose  religious 
faith  never  wavered  nor  ceased  to  sustain  her,  and  who  found 
happiness  in  the  profession  of  teacher,  to  which  she  consecrated 
her  whole  life,  without  reserve,  doubts,  or  weariness. 

A  few  of  the  more  ambitious  and  hard-working  students«at 
Hiram  found  themselves  drawn  by  this  noble  teacher  into  an 
intimacy  with  Miss  Booth  which  was  in  the  highest  degree 
honorable  and  fruitful  of  good  to  both  parties.  Chief  among 
them  was  Garfield,  whose  touching  and  heartfelt  tribute  to  his 
friend  of  friends— delivered  at  Hiram  College,  on  the  22d  of 
June,  1876,  and  covering  forty  pamphlet  pages — is  a  worthy 
memorial,  eloquent  in  the  sincerity  of  its  sadness,  in  its  por 
trayal  of  a  finished  career,  and  in  its  allusions  to  his  own  indebt 
edness  to  the  departed.  The  very  u  dedication"  on  the  front 


26  THE   LIFE   OP   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

leaf  of  the  pamphlet  tells  the  whole  story  so  suggestively  that  I 
give  it  in  full,  viz.  : 

To  the  thousands  of  noble  men  and  women,  whose  generous 

ambition  was  awakened,  whose  early  culture  was  guided, 

and  whose  lives  have  been  made  nobler  by  the  thorough 

ness  of    her    instruction,   by  the  wisdom  of  her 

counsel,  by  the  faithfulness  of  her  friendship, 

and  the  purity  of  her  life,  this  tribute  to 

the  memory  of 

ALMEDA  A.  BOOTH 

is  affectionately  dedicated. 


Garfield  came  to  the  "Eclectic,"  as  a  student,  in  the  Yale 
Term  of  1851.  He  was  then  nineteen  years  of  age  —  large  and 
stalwart  of  form,  an  athlete  in  proportions,  and  consumed  by  a 
general  ambition  to  learn  everything  that  could  be  learned.  But 
he  describes  his  own  appearance,  at  that  time,  by  the  words 
"  pulpy,"  and  "  green."  In  his  eulogy  on  Miss  Booth,  describ 
ing  his  own  feelings,  he  says  : 

"  I  had  never  seen  a  Geometry  ;  and,  regarding  both  teacher 
and  class,  with  a  feeling  of  reverential  awe  for  the  intellectual 
height  to  which  they  had  climbed,  I  studied  their  faces  so 
closely,  that  I  seem  to  see  them  now,  as  distinctly  as  I  saw  them 
then.  And  it  has  been  my  good  fortune,  since  that  time,  to 
claim  them  all  as  intimate  friends." 

In  the  Spring  Term  of  1852.  Garfield  and  a  fellow-student 
were  appointed  to  aid  Miss  Booth  in  writing  a  <  olloquy  for  the 
public  exercises  at  the  end  of  the  school  year.  Miss  Booth  at 
once  directed  the  work,  gave  all  sorts  of  suggestive  hints,  criti 
cised  the  parts,  trained  the  speakers,  and  put  it  on  the  stage,  so 
that  its  success  was  marked.  Says  he,  of  this  work  : 

"  My  admiration  of  her  knowledge  and  ability  was  unbound 
ed.  And  even  now,  after  the  glowing  picture  painted  upon  my 
memory  in  the  strong  colors  of  youthful  enthusiasm  has  been 
shaded  down  by  the  colder  and  more  sombre  tints  which  a 
quarter  of  a  century  has  added,  I  still  regard  her  work  on  that 
occasion  as  possessing  great  merit." 


THE  LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  27 

Other  dramatic  co-operative  efforts  naturally  followed  this 
success,  and  disciplined,  enlivened,  and  cultivated  the  amateur 
dramatists.  In  the  Fall  Term  of  1852  Miss  Booth  and  Garfield 
were  members  of  a  class  in  Xenophon's  Anabasis,  but  near  the 
close  of  this  term  both  Miss  Booth  and  himself  became  teachers, 
and  could  only  keep  up  their  studies  outside  of  class  hours. 
"In  mathematics  and  the  physical  sciences,"  says  GarfiekTs 
eulogy,  "  I  was  far  behind  her  ;  but  we  were  nearly  at  the  same 
place  in  Greek  and  Latin,  each  having  studied  it  about  three 
terms.  She  had  made  her  home  at  President  Hayden's  almost 
from  the  first,  and  I  became  a  member  of  his  family  at  the  begin 
ning  of  the  Winter  Term  of  1852-3.  Thereafter,  for  nearly  two 
years,  she  and  I  studied  together  and  recited  in  the  same  classes 
(frequently  without  other  associates)  till  we  had  nearly  com 
pleted  the  classical  course." 

From  a  diary  which  Garfield  kept,  he  was  able  to  state  what 
Miss  Booth  accomplished  in  the  classics,  in  the  two  years  re 
ferred  to  above,  in  his  eulogy.  As  they  pursued  their  studies 
together,  his  statement  of  her  achievements  is  a  faithful  record 
of  his  own.  In  the  Winter  and  Spring  Terms  of  1853  they  read 
Xenophon's  Memorabilia  entire.  So  zealous  were  some  of  these 
Hiram  students  that  a  dozen  of  them — of  course  including  Miss 
Booth  and  Garfield— hired  a  professor  for  a  month  of  the  sum 
mer  vacation,  and  a  "Literary  Society"  was  formed.  Bearing 
in  mind  that  Garfield  is  giving  the  list  of  his  own  studies  at 
this  period,  we  quote  from  his  eulogy,  as  follows  : 

"Miss  Booth  read  thoroughly,  and  for  the  first  time,  the 
'  Pastorals  '  of  Virgil— that  is,  the  Georgics  and  Burolios  entire — 
and  the  first  six  books  of  Homer's  Iliad,  accompanied  by  a 
thorough  drill  in  the  Latin  or  Greek  grammar  at  each  recita 
tion.  I  am  sure  that  none  of  those  who  recited  with  her  would 
say  she  was  behind  the  foremost  in  the  thoroughness  of  her 
work  or  the  elegance  of  her  translation. 

"  During  the  Fall  Term  of  1853,  she  read  one  hundred  pages 
of  Herodotus,  and  about  the  same  amount  of  Livy.  During  that 
term  also,  Profs.  Dunshee  and  Hull,  and  Miss  Booth  and  I,  met, 
at  her  room,  two  evenings  of  each  week,  to  make  a  joint  trans- 


28  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

lation  of  the  Book  of  Romans.  Prof.  Dunshee  contributed  his 
studies  of  the  German  Commentators,  De  Wette  and  Tholuck  ; 
and  each  of  the  translators  made  some  special  study  for  each 
meeting.  How  nearly  we  completed  the  translation  I  do  not 
remember  ;  but  I  do  remember  that  the  contributions  and  criti 
cisms  of  Miss  Booth  were  remarkable  for  suggestiveness  and 
sound  judgment.  Our  work  was  more  thorough  than  rapid,  for 
1  find  this  entry  in  my  diary  for  December  15,  1853  :  k  Transla 
tion  Society  sat  three  hours  at  Miss  Booth's  room,  and  agreed 
upon  the  translation  of  nine  verses.' 

"  During  the  Winter  Term  of  1853-54,  she  continued  to  read 
Livy,  and  also  read  the  whole  of  '  Demosthenes  on  the  Crown.' 
The  members  of  the  class  in  Demosthenes  were  Miss  Booth,  A. 
Hull,  C.  C.  Foote.  and  myself. 

"  During  the  Spring  Term  of  1854,  she  read  the  *  Germania 
and  Agricola  '  of  Tacitus,  and  a  portion  of  Hesiod." 

It  was  under  the  peculiar  circumstances  existing  at  Hiram 
that  Garfield  came  to  become  what  is  called  a  "  preacher." 
Teachers  and  pupils  were  nearly  all  "Disciples."  They  held 
what  were  called  "social  meetings,"  at  which  some  of  the 
*'  elders"  or  leaders  of  the  church  would  open  with  prayer, 
and  call  on  the  young  men  who  were  church-members  to  speak. 
They  early  recognized  in  young  Garfield  a  sort  of  vigor  and 
force  of  expression  and  facility  of  speech,  and  naturally  called 
on  him,  so  that  it  finally  came  to  be  understood  that  he  was 
expected  to  speak  on  every  occasion.  But  at  first  he  did  so 
with  great  diffidence.  He  felt  awkward,  and  felt  a  sense  of  his 
inferiority  in  culture  to  many  of  those  around  him,  but  he  per 
severed,  and,  what  with  his  practice  in  debating  societies, 
gradually  got  to  think  freely  on  his  legs,  and  developed  such 
power  that  often,  when  the  preacher  at  church  did  not  feel  like 
speaking,  he  would  call  on  "  Brother  Garfield."  This,  among 
the  "Disciples,"  was  entirely  natural.  It  did  not  signify  or 
imply  any  intention  to  recognize  him  even  as  an  incipient 

J-eacher,"  in  the  common  ecclesiastical  sense, 
o  review  the  tremendous  work  done  by  Garfield  at  Hiram, 
>re  going  to  college.     He  began  at  Hiram  in  the  fall   of 
1851,  with  but  twenty-four  weeks  of  Latin  and  twelve  weeks  of 


THE  LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES  A.  GAEFIELD.  29 

Greek.  He  taught  for  two  winters  in  the  district  school. 
After  the  first  term  he  taught  constantly  from  three  to  six, 
and  later,  the  whole  six  classes,  so  that  he  could  only  study 
nights  and  mornings.  In  June,  1854 — less  than  three  years  after 
he  went  to  Hiram — he  not  only  had  fitted  himself  to  enter 
college,  but  had  completed  two  years  of  the  college  course,  so 
as  to  be  admitted  in  the  junior  class  in  Williams,  in  full  and 
good  standing.  He  not  only  paid  his  way  as  he  went,  and  sup 
ported  himself,  but  had  4t  saved  up"  about  $350.  If  there  is 
any  precedent  for  such  achievements  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  it. 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  forming  character  of  the 
studies  thus  athletically  pursued,  at  such  a  period  of  Garfield's 
life,  with  such  singular  enthusiasm  and  in  such  inspiring  and 
elevating  and  refining  companionship.  Such  a  combination  of 
circumstances,  influences,  and  associations  was  far  more  valua 
ble  to  the  formation  of  the  tastes,  tendencies,  aspirations,  senti 
ments,  and  principles  of  the  future  soldier  and  statesman  than 
the  most  famous  universities  of  the  world  could  have  supplied. 
Mind  and  heart  were  simultaneously  quickened  and  developed. 
The  whole  man  was  made  more  manly  by  submitting  to  the  in 
fluence  and  instruction  of  a  noble  woman. 

It  is  to  Garfield's  high  credit  that  he  grows  more  and  more 
proud  of  the  education  which  this  woman  filled  with  her  own 
spirit.  Of  her  and  her  influence  he  speaks  as  unreservedly  as 
did  John  Stuart  Mill  of  that  of  his  wife,  as  to  which,  in  his 
eulogy  of  Miss  Booth,  Garfield  says  : 

"  I  should  reject  his  opinion  on  that  subject  as  a  delusion,  did 
I  not  know,  from  my  own  experience  as  well  as  that  of  hundreds 
of  Hiram  students,  how  great  a  power  Miss  Booth  exercised  over 
the  culture  and  opinions  of  her  friends." 

NOTE.— Certainly  it  was  not  one  of  the  least  important  of  the  experiences  of 
Garfield  as  professor  at  Hiram  that  there  came  to  him  just  such  a  pupil  is  Burke 
A.  Hinsdale,  who  was  to  become  his  prottgi  and  intimate  friend.  Mr.  Hins-dale 
thus  describes  the  first  acquaintance: 

"  To  me,  General  Garfield  is  no  more  than  he  was  before  his  nomination  at 
Chicago.  My  acquaintance  with  him  began  in  November,  1853.  Then  it  was 
that,  a  gawky  boy,  the  smell  of  the  furrow  upon  my  garments.  I  first  appeared  in 


30  THE   LIFE   OP   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

Hiram.  He  soon  made  the  capture  of  my  heart.  At  that  time  the  leading 
Hi  rain  men  were  called  Philomatheans,  from  the  society  to  which  they  belonged. 
In  an  address  delivered  in  1875,  speaking  of  the  old  Hiram  days,  I  eaid  :  '  Henry 
Jam  '8  (an  old  Hiram  man;  speaks  of  the  Philomathesians  as  "  wonderful  men," 
mentions  tho-e  that  he  thought  the  •'  ma^er  spirits,"  and  adds  :  ''Then  began 
to  grow  up  in  me  an  admiration  and  love  for  Gartield  that  has  never  abated,  and 
the  like  of  which  I  have  never  known.  A  bow  of  recognition,  or  a  single  word 
from  him,  was  to  me  an  inspiration."  The  exact  parallel  of  my  own  experience. 
Garfield,  you  have  taught  me  more  than  any  oiher  man,  living  or  dead  ;  and 
when  I  recall  those  early  days,  when  I  remember  that  James  and  I  were  not  the 
last  of  the  boys,  proud  as  I  am  of  your  record  as  a  soldier  and  statesman,  I  can 
hardly  forgive  you  for  abandoning  the  academy  for  the  field  and  the  forum  I  ' 
And  the  cheers  with  which  the  old  chapel  rung  as  I  read  the  paragraph  showed 
that  a  heart  chord  had  been  struck." 

The  half  brotherly  and  half  fatherly  affection  of  Garfield  for  Hinsdale  grew 
with  the  years,  and  no  father  could  have  taken  a  more  constant  and  affectionate 
interest  in  Htnsdale's  whole  subsequent  Lfe  than  Garfield  did.  But  this  implied 
no  lack  of  independence  on  Hinsdale's  part,  for  it  is  equally  creditable  to  both 
that  he  felt  free  to  criticise  Garfield  at  all  times,  and  that  Garfield  rather  en 
couraged  the  criticisms  that  came  from  a  younger  man,  who  was  not  only  abso 
lutely  loyal  to  him,  but  to  truth  and  conscience.  To  no  other  human  being,  save 
his  wife,  has  Garfield  written  so  long,  so  frequently,  with  such  absolute  freedom 
and  with  such  fulness.  Mr.  Hiusdale — or  President  Ilinsdale,  I  should  say,  for 
he  is  Garfield's  worthy  successor  in  the  presidency  of  Hiram  College — has  pre 
served  every  scrap  of  paper  he  has  received  from  his  great  friend.  To  his  great 
liberality,  confidence,  and  devotion  to  Garfield,  I  am  indebted  for  the  absolutely 
unrestrained  use  of  his  whole  collection  of  letters  from  Garfield,  about  400  in  all. 
They  include  a  correspondence  lasting  from  1857  to  the  eve  of  the  Chicago  Con 
vention.  Most  of  them  Hinsdale  had  not  looked  at  for  many  years.  That  he 
should  fi-arlessly  submit  them  to  the  scrutiny  and  use  of  a  stranger  is  an  ultimate 
proof  of  the  absolute  knowledge  he  had  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  most 
hasty  and  confidential  notes  of  Garfield  that  would  not  bear  inspection  and  the 
light.  How  many  of  our  public  men  would  be  willing  to  have  such  a  correspond- 
«nce  exposed  to  even  a  private  view  ? 


CHAPTER  V. 

GARFIELD   AT   WILLIAMS. 

IN  selecting  a  college  wherein  to  pursue  the  last  half  of  the 
usual  curriculum,  Gartield,  as  usual,  acted  with  great  care  and 
judgment.  He  would  naturally  have  drifted  to  Bethany,  the 
college  in  Western  Virginia  founded  by  Alexander  Campbell, 
and  sustained  by  the  "  Disciples,"  if  he  had  been  a  drifter; 
the  exact  reverse  of  which  he  was,  as  is  shown  by  the  follow 
ing  letter,  written  about  that  time  by  Garfield,  which  I  find  in 
Whitelaw  Reid's  "  Ohio  in  the  War,"  viz.  : 

"There  are  three  reasons  why  I  have  decided  not  to  go  to  Bethany:  let. 
The  course  of  study  is  not  so  extensive  or  thorough  as  in  Eastern  colleges.  2d. 
Bethany  leans  too  heavily  toward  slavery.  3d.  .1  am  the  son  of  Disciple  parents, 
am  one  myself,  and  have  had  but  little  acquaintance  with  people  of  other  views  ; 
and,  having  always  lived  in  the  West,  I  think  it  will  make  me  more  liberal,  both 
in  my  religious  and  general  views  and  sentiments,  to  go  into  a  new  circle,  where 
I  shall  be  under  new  influences.  These  considerations  led  me  to  conclude  to  go 
to  some  New  England  college.  I  therefore  wrote  to  the  Presidents  of  Brown 
University,  Yale,  and  Williams,  setting  forth  the  amount  of  study  I  had  done, 
and  asking  how  long  it  would  take  me  to  finish  their  course. 

"  These  answers  are  now  before  me.  AH  tell  me  I  can  graduate  in  two 
years.  They  are  all  brief  business  notes,  but  President  Hopkins  concludes  with 
this  sentence  :  '  If  you  come  here,  we  shall  be  glad  to  do  what  we  can  for  you.' 
Other  things  being  so  nearly  equal,  this  sentence,  which  seems  to  be  a  kind  of 
friendly  grasp  of  the  hand,  has  settled  the  question  for  me.  I  shall  start  for 
Williams  next  week." 

It  was  a  wise  choice.  First,  because  Williams  was  a  small 
rural  college,  where  a  poor  young  man  could  get  along  and  be 
respected,  but  mainly  because  its  whole  spirit  was  that  of  the 
great  man  who  was  then  its  President,  Mark  Hopkins,  who  was 
in  the  full  vigor  of  his  powers — a  man  unique  in  college  history 
for  the  union  of  philosophic  breadth,  wide  attainments,  gener 
ous  manhood,  and  capacity  to  communicate.  He  was  quick  to 


32  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

recognize  "the  making"  of  a  great  man  in  the  awkward 
young  Western  giant  who  came  to  his  care,  and  there  sprang  up 
between  teacher  and  pupil  a  friendship  that  has  grown  to  this 
day. 

In  preparing  this  chapter  in  regard  to  Garfield's  Williams 
experience  I  gratefully  availed  myself  of  the  kind  offer  of 
Colonel  A.  F.  Rockwell,  an  able  and  accomplished  officer  in  the 
Quartermaster's  Department  of  the  United  States  Army,  who 
was  a  classmate  of  Garfield  at  Williams,  and  has  ever  since  been 
an  intimate  friend  and  correspondent.  Colonel  Rockwell  pro 
posed  to  send,  and  did  send,  a  circular  letter  to  each  of  the  sur 
viving  members  of  the  class,  asking  for  such  reminiscences  as 
might  be  interesting  and  appropriate  for  this  book.  The  let 
ters  which  follow,  fiom  Garfield's  classmates,  all  came  in  re 
sponse  to  Colonel  Rockwell's  letter.  Afterward,  knowing  the 
intimate  personal  relations  between  Cyrus  W.  Field,  Esq.,  and 
both  ex-President  Hopkins  and  President  Chadbourne,  I  asked 
Mr.  Field  to  write  to  both  for  such  letters  as  they  might  choose 
to  send  me. 

These  letters,  taken  together,  present  such  a  complete  picture 
of  Garfield,  as  a  Williams  student,  that  they  need  very  little,  if 
any,  connection  or  comment.  I  give  first  the  letters  of  Dr. 
Hopkins  and  President  Chadbourne,  as  follows  : 

REMINISCENCES   BY  EX-PRESIDENT   HOPKINS. 

WILLIAMS  COLLEGE,  July  17,  1880. 
MAJOR  BUNDT. 

Dear  Sir:  You  ask  some  account  of  the  college  life  of  Gen.  Garfield.  I  re 
member  no  incidents  worthy  of  note,  but  some  characteristics  may  be  given. 
Anything  that  may  aid  the  people  in  forming  a  judgment  of  his  fitness  for  the 
office  to  which  he  is  nominated  they  have  a  right  to. 

My  first  -°mark,  then,  is  that  General  Garfield  was  not  sent  to  college.  He 
came.  This  often  marks  a  distinction  between  college  students.  To  some,  col 
lege  is  chiefly  a  place  of  aimless  transition  through  the  perilous  period  between 
boyhood  and  manhood.  Without  fixed  principles,  and  with  no  definite  aim,  with 
an  aversion  to  study  rather  than  a  love  of  it,  they  seek  to  get  along  with  the  least 
possible  effort.  Between  the  whole  attitude  and  bearing  of  such,  and  of  one 
who  comes,  the  contrast  is  like  that  between  mechanical  and  vital  force.  In 
«vhat  Gen.  Garfleld  did  there  was  nothing  mechanical.  He  not  only  came,  but 


THE   LIFE  OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  33 

made  sacrifices  to  come.  His  work  was  from  a  vital  force,  and  so  was  without 
fret  or  worry.  He  came  with  a  high  aim,  and  pursued  it  steadily. 

A  second  remark  is  that  the  studies  of  Gen.  Garfield  had  breadth.  As 
every  student  should,  he  made  it  his  first  business  to  master  the  studies  of  the 
class-room.  This  he  did,  but  the  college  furnishes  facilit  es,  and  is  intended, 
etpi'c'ally  in  the  latter  pait  of  its  course,  to  furnish  oppoitunity  for  gaining  gen 
eral  knowledge,  and  for  self-directed  culture.  To  many,  the  most  valuable  re 
sult  of  their  college  cour-e  is  from  these.  What  they  have  affinity  for  they  find, 
and  often  make  most  valuable  acquisitions  in  general  literature,  in  history,  in 
natural  science,  and  in  politics.  Of  these  facilities  and  of  this  opportunity  Gen. 
Garfield  availed  himst-if  largely.  Of  his  tendency  toward  politics  in  those  days 
we  have  an  illustration  in  a  poem  entitled  '*  Sam,"  which  he  delivered  while  in 
college,  and  in  which  he  satirized  the  Know-Nothing  Party.  He  manifested 
while  in  college  the  eame  tendency  toward  breadth  which  he  has  since,  for  it  is 
well  known  that  he  has  been  a  general  scholar  and  a  statesman  rather  than  a 
mere  politician. 

And  as  Gen.  Garfield  was  broad  in  his  scholarship,  so  was  he  in  his  sympa 
thies.  No  one  thought  of  him  as  a  recluse,  or  as  bookish.  Not  given  to  athletic 
sports,  he  was  fond  of  them.  His  mind  was  open  to  the  impression  of  natural 
scenery,  and,  as  his  constitution  was  vigorous,  he  knew  well  the  fine  points  on 
the  mountains  around  us.  He  was  also  social  in  his  disposition,  both  giving 
and  inspiring  confidence.  So  true  is  this  of  his?  intercourse  with  the  officers  of 
the  college  as  well  as  with  others,  that  he  was  never  even  suspected  of  anvthing 
low  or  trickish  ;  nnd  hence,  in  part,  the  confidence  I  have  always  felt  in  his  in 
tegrity.  He  had  a  quick  eye  for  anything  that  turned  up  with  a  ludicrous  side 
to  it,  and  celebrated  a  trick  the  Freshmen  played  on  the  Sophomores  by  a  clever 
parody  of  Tennyson's  "  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade,1'  published  in  tbe  College 
Quarterly.  Respecting  always  the  individuality  of  others,  and  commanding 
without  exacting  their  respect,  he  was  a  general  favorite  with  his  associates. 

A  further  point  in  Gen.  Garfield's  course  of  study  worthy  of  remark  was  its 
evenness.  There  was  nothing  siartling  at  any  one  time,  and  no  special  prefer 
ence  for  any  one  study.  There  was  a  large  general  capacity  applicable  to  any 
subject,  and  sound  sense.  As  he  was  more  mature  than  most,  he  naturally  had 
a  readier  and  firmer  grasp  of  the  higher  studies.  Hence  his  appointment  to  the 
metaphysical  oration,  then  one  of  the  high  honors  of  the  class.  What  he  did 
was  not  done  with  facility,  but  by  honest  and  avowed  work.  There  was  no  pre 
tence  of  genius,  or  alternation  of  spasmodic  effort  and  of  rest,  but  a  satisfactory 
accomplishment  in  all  directions  of  what  was  undertaken.  Hence  there  was  a 
steady,  healthful,  onward  and  upward  progress,  such  as  has  characterized  his 
course  since  his  gradual  ion.  If  that  course  should  still  be  upward,  it  would  add 
another  to  the  grand  illustrations  we  have  already  of  the  spirit  of  our  iree  insti 
tutions.  *  *  * 

PRESIDENT  CHADBOURNE'S  LETTER. 

WILLIAMS  COLLEGE,  Williamstown,  Mass.,  July  9,  1880. 
General  Garfield  graduated  from  Williams  College  in  1856.    He  evidently 
came  to  college  for  a  purpose,  and  nothing  turned  him  from  that  purpose.    He 


04  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GAEFIELD. 

recognized  the  fact  that  the  professors  were  placed  over  the  college  to  Instruct 
and  govern  the  students.  He  gained  from  them  all  the  good  he  could,  and  those 
now  living  remember  him  as  a  noble  man  even  as  a  student.  He  then  gave 
prom^e  of  what  he  has  since  become— that  is,  a  man  equal  to  any  emergency,  a 
man  of  strong  convictions  of  duty  and  unflinching  courage.  There  are  no  stories 
to  be  told  of  him  of  insubordination  to  law,  neglect  of  work,  or  indulgence  in  stale 
college  tricks — those  things  he  left  to  other  men.  Hard  work,  a  genial  nature, 
and  manly  spirit  gave  promise  of  that  growth  of  character  and  constantly  in 
creasing  influence  which  all  have  witnessed  since  Gen.  Garfield  became  promi 
nent  in  public  life.  It  is  pleasant  fcr  instructors  to  see  their  pupils  come  to 
honor,  but  when,  as  in  this  case,  the  honors  seem  to  be  so  natural  a  result  of 
wise,  energetic  action  begun  in  college  days,  they  are  in  duty  bound  to  present 
such  examples  to  those  just  beginning  life.  Few  can  have  the  opportunities  for 
the  kind  of  success  achieved  by  Gen.  Garfield,  but  had  no  political  honor  ever 
come  to  him,  he  would  have  been  a  power  for  good  in  the  world. 

P.  A.  CHADBOURNE. 

LETTER  FROM  THE  HON.   C.  H.   HILL. 

33  SCHOOL  STREET,  BOSTON,  June  23,  1880. 

I  think  at  that  time  he  was  paying  great  attention  to  German,  and  devoted 
all  his  leisure  time  to  that  language.  In  his  studies,  his  taste  was  rather  for 
metaphysical  and  philosophical  studies  than  for  history  and  biography,  which 
were  the  studies  most  to  my  liking,  but  he  read  besides  a  good  deal  of  poetry 
and  general  literature.  Tennyson  was  then  and  has  ever  been  since  one  of  his 
favorite  authors,  and  I  remember,  too,  when  Hiawatha  was  published,  how 
greatly  he  admired  it,  and  how  he  would  quote  almost  pages  of  it  in  our  walks 
together.  He  was  also  greatly  interested  in  Charles  Kingsley's  writings,  particu 
larly  in  Alton  Locke  and  Yeast.  I  first,  I  think,  introduced  him  to  Dickens  and 
gave  him  Oliver  Twist  to  read,  and  he  roared  with  laughter  over  Mr.  Bumble. 

We  belonged  to  the  Philologian  Society,  one  of  the  two  great  literary 
societies  of  the  college,  and  it  was  at  his  suggestion  that  I  attended  its  weekly 
meetings  regularly,  and  almost  always  took  part  in  the  debate.  I  think  he  was 
considered  our  best  debater,  although  we  had  several  who  were  very  good. 
Garfield  had  always  been  a  Whig  of  the  Seward  and  Wade  school,  and  until  the 
organization  of  the  Republican  Party,  in  1856,  men  with  his  opinions,  during  our 
college  days,  were  in  a  sort  of  political  limbo,  for  he  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  Know-Nothing  Party,  which  then  seemed  to  be  carrying  everything 
before  it,  and  attracted  large  numbers  of  young  men,  but  whose  principles  he 
strongly  condemned,  and  he  had  no  liking,  of  course,  for  the  Democracy.  The 
great  political  questions  of  the  day— the  treatment  of  Kaneas,  the  dangers  from 
the  influx  of  foreigners  and  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  constitution 
ality  of  Personal  Liberty  Bills,  the  Crimean  war,  and  the  desirability  of  an 
elective  judiciary— were  eagerly  debated  in  the  Philologian,  and  he  invariably 
took  part,  except  during  the  period  when  he  was  President  of  the  society. 
Two  members  of  the  Convention  at  Chicago  which  nominated  him  for  Presi 
dent  were  active  members  of  the  society,  Mr.  W.  S.  B.  Hopkins,  of  Worces 
ter,  Massachusetts,  and  our  classmate,  General  Ferris  Jacob*,  of  Delhi,  N.  Y. 


THE  LIFE  OF  GEN".  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  35 

Other  prominent  debaters  were  the  lamented  Dr.  Dimmock,  of  Adams  Academy, 
Quiucy ;  ex-Senator  Hitchcock,  of  Nebraska ;  E.  L.  Lincoln  (now  deceased)  ; 
S.  B.  Forbes,  and  Charles  Marsh,  of  the  Class  of  1855,  and  Charles  S.  Halsey, 
Edward  Clarence  Smith,  C  D.  Wilber,  and  others  whom  I  do  not  now  recall, 
of  our  own  class.  In  all  these  debates,  I  should  say  that  he  was  d  stinguished 
for  moderation— not  always,  perhaps,  in  expression,  but  in  opinion.  His  in- 
stmcte_wejrejCQJJ^£f^atiye,  I  remember  distinctly  that  he  was,  when  he  came  to 
"cofiegeTaTfervent  supporter  of  a.i  elective  judiciary,  but  in  preparing  himself  to 
take  part  in  a  debate  on  that  subject,  he  studied  himself  over  to  the  opposite 
side  of  the  question,  and  began  his  speech  by  frankly  admitting  that  he  had 
within  a  week  entirely  changed  his  opinions  on  this  subject. 

In  1870, 1  was  appointed  Assistant  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States, 
and  for  five  winters  my  rooms  were  in  the  same  street  with  Garfield's  house  at 
Washington,  and  but  a  few  doors  from  it,  and  either  at  his  house,  or  at  the 
Capitol,  I  saw  him  almost  daily.  I  think,  in  college,  he  looked  forward  rather 
to  a  professional  and  judicial  career  than  to  a  political  one,  but  I  perceived  that 
his  intellectual  growth  since  he  left  college  had  been  a  steady  and  consistent 
expansion  of  what  he  was  as  a  young  man.  His  political  opinions,  as  they 
showed  themselves  in  our  conversations,  were  what  they  appear,  I  think,  in  his 
speeches— broad  and  conservative— thos?e  of  a  party  man  who,  however,  looks 
beyond  party,  and  of  a  practical  statesman  who  deals  with  existing  facts,  and 
does  the  best  with  them,  rather  than  those  of  a  political  doctrinaire.  His  con 
sistent  and  unflinching  support  of  honest  money,  and  constant  enforcement  of 
the  duty  of  maintaining  the  national  honor  by  paying  the  creditor  according  to 
his  contract,  reminds  me  of  one  trait  in  his  character.  Although  a  poor  boy,  and 
a  very  poor  man  in  college,  and  although  he  has  been  comparatively  poor  ever 
since,  I  never  perceived  in  him  the  slightest  tincture  of  bitterness  or  envy 
toward  those  who  were  better  off  than  he  was,  or  of  dislike  for  the  rich 
because  they  are  rich.  In  my  long  intimate  companionship  with  him,  I  am  cer 
tain  he  would  more  than  once  have  betrayed  some  such  feeling  had  he  enter 
tained  it,  and  I  know  I  should  have  noticed  and  remembered  it.  At  Washington, 
he  was  always  delighted  to  see  old  college  friends,  and  talk  over  college  days, 
about  which  his  memory  is  wonderfully  retentive.  Two  other  members  of  our 
class,  Mr.  Gilfillan,  Treasurer  of  the  United  States,  and  Colonel  Rockwell, 
resided  in  Washington  at  the  time,  and  formed  a  nucleus  for  class  meetings 
whenever  an  old  classmate  turned  up.  Toward  Williams  College  he  has  always 
entertained  a  most  filial  affection,  and  ever  speaks  with  deep  feeling  of  the  bene 
fits  which  he  derived  from  his  two  years'  residence  there,  and  especially  from  the 
instruction  and  influence  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  the  President,  who  during  his  thirty 
years'  tenure  of  th;it  office  impressed  himself  as  strongly  upon  the  young  men 
under  his  charge  as  any  college  instructor  the  country  has  ever  seen,  and  who 
has  old  pupils  on  the  Supreme  Bench  of  the  United  States,  in  both  Houses  of 
Congress,  and  in  other  positions  of  trust  and  influence  throughout  the  land. 
I  remain  your  obedient  servant, 

CLEMENT  HUGH  HILL. 
J.  M.  BUNDY,  Esq. 


36  THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 


LETTER  FROM  THE  REV.  JAMES  K.  HAZEN. 

PRESBYTERIAN  COMMITTEE  OF  PUBLICATION,  ) 

1001  MAIN  STREET,  V 

RICHMOND,  YA.,  June  22, 1880.         ) 

The  warm  personal  regard  and  affection  I  have  for  Garfield  lead  me  to 
respond  with  alacrity,,  though  I  f ear  1  can  furnish  you  little  that  will  be  valua 
ble  Igr  the  purpose  whicn  you  have  in  view. 

We  expected  much  of  Garfield  when  in  college,  and  predicted  for  him  a  seat 
in  Congress  within  less  than  ten  years  of  his  graduation  (he  reached  it  in  seven), 
but,  so  far  as  I  know,  our  class  prophecies  did  not  point  to  a  Presidential  candi 
dacy  ;  if  they  had,  our  memoranda  would  doubtless  have  been  very  full. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  board  at  the  same  table  with  Garfield  during  our 
Senior  year,  and  I  have  a  very  vivid  recollection  of  our  daily  conversations  upon 
the  various  subjects  of  study  that  engaged  our  attention,  but  particularly  upon 
the  Shorter  Catechism. 

It  was  the  custom  then,  and  perhaps  is  still,  in  old  Williams,  for  the 
Senior  Class  to  devote  Saturday  morning  to  an  exercise  in  that  time  honored 
standard  of  the  Calvinistic  faith,  under  the  instructions  of  President  Hopkins, 
and,  though  holding  a  different  type  of  theology,  none  of  our  class  entered  into 
the  study  more  heartily  than  Garfield.  It  suited  his  metaphysical  turn  of  mind. 
In  the  discussions  that  followed,  as  we  went  from  the  class-room  to  our  din 
ner-table,  I  was  always  impressed  with  the  keenness  of  his  criticisms,  though 
my  faith  in  the  oil  Catechism  and  its  doctrines  was  not  shaken,  and  with  the 
straightforward  fa-mess  and  the  hear:y  respect  which  he  accorded  to  views 
which  he  ut  erly  refused  to  accept.  It  occurs  to  me  that  in  this  we  have  a  char 
acteristic  feature  of  the  man,  which  has  more  than  once  been  prominently  mani 
fested  in  his  political  career. 

The  occurrences  of  the  last  few  days  have  recalled  to  my  mind  very  vividly 
the  beginning  of  the  campaign  of  18136,  twenty-four  years  ago.  The  first  Presi 
dential  candidate  of  the  Republican  Party,  John  C.  Fremont,  was  nominated 
shortly  before  our  graduation.  A  college  ratification  meeting  was  held,  on 
receipt  of  the  news,  and,  among  others  of  the  Senior  Class,  Garfield  spoke. 
Probably  this  was  his  first  Republican  speech,  and  1  can  testify  that  it  waa 
enthusiastic  and  eloquent. 

He  had  turned  his  attention  to  politics  before  this  somewhat,  having  de 
livered,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Adelphic  Union  Exhibition,  1853,  a  poem,  entitled 
"  Sam,"  which  may  be  found  in  Vol.  III.,  No.  1,  page  25,  of  the  Williama 
Quarterly. 

Of  the  heartiness  and  cheeriness  of  his  manner  as  a  friend  and  companion,  I 
have  the  plea6"  Jest  recollect  ions,  and  I  can  recall  nothing  whatever  that  in  the 
slightest  degree  mars  this  impression. 

Strong,  however,  as  was  my  attachment  to  Garfield  during  our  college  life,  it 
has  been  greatly  strengthened  by  incidents  that  have  since  occurred. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  be  the  only  one  of  my  classmates  on  the  losing  side  in 
Ibe  late  war.  Going  South  very  soon  after  graduation,  it  has  been  my  home 
ever  since.  In  1871  or  1872,  some  fifteen  years  from  the  time  we  graduated, 
business  called  me  to  Washington,  and  I  found  there  several  of  my  claesmateg 


THE  LIFE  OF  GEN'.  JAMES  A.  QARFIELD.  37 

and  college  acquaintances  occupying  various  positions  of  honor  and  responsi 
bility,  but  none  of  them  recognized  me  as  I  met  them,  and  I  was  under  the 
necessity  of  introducing  myself.  Nut  so,  however,  with  Gaifield.  On  the  morn 
ing  of  my  arrival  a  friend  had  given  me  a  seat  on  the  floor  of  ihe  House  at  the 
opening  of  the  session.  Shortly  afterward  Gaifield  came  in  from  the  opposite 
side  of  the  hall,  and  approaching  his  desk,  which  happened  to  be  just  before  the 
one  I  occupied,  he  recognized  me  the  moment  he  entered  and  greeted  me  at 
once  with  my  old  college  nickname,  "Rex."  I  mention  this  as  indicating  the 
possession  of  one  of  those  faculties  which  men  of  high  position  have  found  it 
necessary  to  cultivate.  But  what  I  designed  to  mention  especially  in  connection 
with  this  was  the  warm  welcome  I  received  to  his  home,  and  the  many  kind 
nesses  experienced  then  and  on  subsequent  occasions,  many  of  them  prompted, 
as  I  am  disposed  to  think,  by  the  very  fact  that  I  was  regarded  in.  the  light  of 
"  an  erring  brother."  Yours,  very  truly, 

JAS.  K.  HAZEN. 

LETTER  FROM  THE  REV.  JOHN  TATLOCK. 

HOOSICK  FALLS,  N.  Y..  June  25,  1880. 

Mr.  Garfield  displayed  in  college  that  perfect  self-possession,  that  entire 
command  of  his  powers  and  of  his  mental  resources,  which  afterward  made 
him  successful  in  the  field  and  a  ready  and  powerful  d  abater  in  Congress. 

Of  his  boldness  and  facility  in  turning  to  account  vague  scraps  of  informa 
tion,  which  more  timid  men  would  fear  to  use,  and  which  less  able  men  could 
not  use,  1  recall  an  illustration : 

In  his  Junior  year  he  was  engaged  in  a  public  debate  between  representa 
tives  of  the  two  literary  societies.  The  speaker  who  preceded  him  on  the  oppo 
site  side  produced  an  elaborate  illustration  from  "Don  Quixote."  Gaifield,  in 
reply,  raised  a  laugh  against  his  opponent  by  comparing  him  to  the  knight  at 
tacking  the  windmill.  "  Or  rather,11  said  he,  "it  would  be  more  appropriate  to 
say  that  the  gentleman  resembles  the  windmill  attacking  the  knight." 

At  the  supper  following  the  debate  Garfield  was  rallied  on  his  extensive  ac 
quaintance  with  the  classics.  He  laughingly  replied  that  he  had  never  read 
"Don  Quixote,'1  and  had  heard  only  an  allusion  to  the  mad  knight's  assault  upon 
the  flying  arms  of  the  innocent  mill.  .  .  . 

To  this  I  will  only  add  that  he  was  a  man  of  a  sweet,  large  and  wholesome 
nature,  and  endeared  himself  the  most  to  those  who  knew  him  best. 
Yours  truly,  JOHN  TATLOCK, 

Classmate  of  Gen.  Garfield,  and  Co-Editor  with  him. 

LETTER  FROM    MR.   SILAS  P.  HUBBELL. 

CHAMPLAIN,  CLINTON  COUNTY,  N.  Y.,  June  28, 1880. 

Garfield  entered  our  Junior  Class  in  fall  of  '54.  He  brought  with  him  from 
Ohio  another  student,  Charles  D.  Wilbur,  who  joined  our  class  at  same  time, 
and  between  them  there  seemed  to  be  a  strong  attachment.  They  roomed  to 
gether  in  South  College,  and,  as  we  termed  it,  were  college  chums.  Wilbur  unfor 
tunately  was  lame  aud  limped  badly,  and  required  the  help  of  crutches  or  a 


38  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 


stout  cane.  They  were  always  together,  and  Garfield's  kindness  to  his  crippled 
chum  was  very  noticeable.  The  pair  in  their  daily  walks  to  and  from  the  reci 
tation-rooms  and  about  the  college  grounds  excited  the  eager  gaze  and  curiosity 
of  their  fellow-students,  from  their  quaint  and  odd  appearance  and  evident  un- 
familiarity  with  college  ways  and  doings. 

Besides,  the  contrast  in  the  appearance  of  the  couple  was  very  striking— Gar- 
field  of  large  frame,  looming  up  six  feet  high,  strong  and  healthy,  and  looking 
like  a  backwoodsman,  and  Wilbur,  with  a  pale,  intellectual  cast  of  countenance 
limping  along  beside  him. 

They  made  no  attempt  to  conform  to  the  ways  and  peculiarities  of  college 
life,  or  to  ingratiate  themselves  with  the  students.  They  both  seemed  to  be  in 
dead  earnest,  striving  to  get  an  education,  and  to  be  entirely  engrossed  in  their 
studies  and  college  duties. 

Their  position  at  first  was  a  very  isolated  and  peculiar  one,  and  which 
was  somewhat  enhanced  by  a  whisper  that  soon  circulated  among  the 
students  that  they  were  Campbellites.  Now,  what  that  meant,  or  what  tenets  the 
sect  held,  nobody  seemed  to  know,  but  it  was  supposed  to  mean  sompthing 
very  awful.  But  they  continued  on  pursuing  the  even  tenor  of  their  way,  un 
moved  by  the  stares  and  criticisms  of  their  companions.  After  a  time  this  feel 
ing  passed  away,  and  Garfield,  by  his  successful  attainments  and  straightforward, 
manly  course,  commanded  the  respect  and  admiration  of  his  class  and  of  the 
whole  college. 

College  life,  as  everybody  knows,  is  a  world  in  miniature  ;  we  had  our  elec 
tions,  our  debates,  our  caucuses,  our  anxieties  and  ambitious  desires.  There 
were  two  large  debating  societies  in  the  college,  one  the  Philologians,  the  other 
the  Philotechnians,  and  a  strong  rivalry  existed  between  the  two  societies.  Gar- 
field  joined  the  Philologian  Society,  and  took  great  interest  in  its  welfare, 
He  very  soon  took  prominence  as  a  debater,  and  by  his  ready  wit  and 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  subject  discussed  generally  won  his  side  of  the 
case.  He  ^  as  a  very  hard  student,  and  he  never  would  speak  or  enter  into  the 
debate  unless  he  had  thoroughly  mastered  the  subject  beforehand.  The  subjects 
discussed  in  these  meetings  were  of  a  varied  character,  but  he  always  spoke  on 
Hie  side  of  riirht  and  freedom,  and  in  behalf  of  the  people  and  against  oppression 
of  sill  kinds.  In  October,  1855,  in  the  public  debate  between  the  two  societies 
held  in  the  college  chapel,  he  was  one  of  the  persons  elected  to  represent  his 
society  in  the  debate.  The  subject  for  discussion  was,  "  Was  the  Feudal  System 
Beneficial  ?"  The  negative  was  supported  by  Garfield.  and  by  his  animated,  ear 
nest,  and  convincing  arguments,  and  enthusiastic  denunciations  of  the  oppres 
sions  of  the  system,  he  won  the  hearty  applause  of  his  auditory.  At  the  begin 
ning  of  the  Senior  year  he  was  elected  President  of  the  Philologian  Society  by  a 
large  majority,  and  won  t*ie  admiration  of  all  by  his  knowledge  of  parliamen 
tary  ta<  ties,  and  the  ease  and  erace  with  which  he  presided  over  the  assembly. 

At  the  commencement,  of  Senior  year  Garfield  was  elected  one  of  the  editors 
of  the  Willi-imx  Quarterly,  a  p--riodical  conducted  by  the  students,  and  won  an 
hono  able  distinction  in  our  literary  world  by  his  contributions  to  the  magazine. 
Some  of  his  essays  at  the  time  were  very  noticeable,  one  in  particular  I  now 
remember,  entitled  "  The  Province  of  History,11  which  showed  a  depth  of  re- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEH.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  39 


search  and  broad,  far-reaching  views  as  to  the  province  of  history  which  was  not 
expected  of  an  undergraduate  at  college.  This  article  appeared  in  the  number 
for  June,  1856,  and  placed  Garfield  at  the  front  in  regard  to  literary  attainments. 

Garfield  early  joined  the  Mills  Theological  Society,  which  represented 
some  of  the  best  men  in  college.  They  held  meetings  every  week,  had  a  very 
fine  library,  embraced  among  their  members  a  great  deal  of  the  best  culture  and 
talent  in  the  college.  It  was  unsectarian  in  character,  and  wielded  a  powerful 
influence  for  good  over  the  whole  college. 

Garfield  successively  filled  the  offices  of  Librarian  and  President  of  the  so 
ciety,  and  by  his  urbanity,  innate  kindliness  of  nature,  and  good  sound  judgment 
iu  the  management  of  its  affairs,  won  the  respect  and  esteem  of  all  its  members. 
Garfield  was  quiet  and  undemonstrative  in  his  religious  habits.  There  was  no 
cant  about  him.  But  he  impressed  all  with  his  deep  sincerity  and  honesty  of 
purpose.  He  lived  the  life  of  a  true  Christian. 

I  well  remember  commencement  day  at  "  Old  Williams,"  when  our  class 
graduated.  Garfield  took  one  of  the  highest  honors  of  his  class,  called  the  meta 
physical  oration.  The  subject  of  his  oration  was  "Matter  and  Spirit."  The 
audience  were  wonderfully  impressed  with  his  oratory,  and  at  the  close  there 
was  a  wild  tumult  of  applause,  and  a  showering  down  upon  him  of  beautiful 
bouquets  of  flowers  by  the  ladies,  a  most  fitting  end  to  his  arduous,  eelf-denying 
college  course  and  a  bright  augury  for  the  future. 

1  remain  respectfully  yours,  SILAS  P.  HUBBELL. 

LETTER  FROM  MR.  LAV  ALETTE  WILSON. 

HAVERSTRAW,  N.  Y.,  June  28, 1880. 

Mr.  Garfield  even  then  showed  that  magnetic  power  which  he  now  exhibits 
in  a  remarkable  degree  in  public  life,  of  surrounding  himself  with  men  of  vari 
ous  talents,  and  of  employing  each  to  the  best  advantage  in  his  sphere.  When 
questions  for  discussion  arose  in  the  college  societies,  Garfield  would  give  each 
of  his  allies  a  point  to  investigate  ;  books  and  documents  from  all  the  libraries 
would  be  overhauled,  and  the  mass  of  facts  thus  obtained  being  brought  to 
gether,  Garfield  would  analyze  the  whole,  assign  each  of  his  associates  his  part, 
and  they  would  go  into  the  battle  to  conquer.  He  was  always  in  earnest  and 
persistent  in  carrying  his  point,  often  against  apparently  insurmountable  ob 
stacles,  and  in  college  election  contests  (which  are  often  more  intense  than 
national  elections)  he  was  always  successful. 

He  showed  perfect  uprightness  of  character,  was  religious  without  cant  or 
austerity.and  his  influence  tor  good  was  widely  felt.  I  never  heard  an  angry  word 
or  a  hasty  expression,  or  a  sentence  which  needed  to  be  recalled.  He  possessed 
equanimity  of  temper,  self-possession,  and  self-control  in  the  highest  di-gree. 
What  is  more,  I  never  heard  a  profane  or  improper  word  or  an  indelicate  al 
lusion  from  his  lips.  He  was  in  habits,  speech,  and  example  a  pure  man. 

Arising,  some  may  say  from  his  own  early  struggles,  but  as  I  believe  from 
his  native  nobility  of  character,  wa»  his  sympathy  for  the  suffering  or  depressed 
or  humble.  He  would  find  out  their  wishes  and  desires,  th-  ir  best  points, 
and  where  their  ability  lay,  and  encourase  them  to  ;<dvancement  and  siic.resa. 
Not  even  now  has  he  any  of  that  inapproachability  aud  hauteur  which  too 


40  THE  LIFE  OF  GEN".  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

often  accompany  great  talents  and  high  position.  He  is  a  democrat  in  the  high 
est  sense  of  the  word ;  no  matter  how  humble  a  position  a  person  may  hold,  hov? 
nnfashionably  dressed,  how  countrified  in  appearance,  or  lacking  in  knowledge 
of  the  u-ages  of  polite  society,  he  will  feel  at  ease  in  Mr.  Garfield's  presence, 
and  receive  the  same  courtesy  and  probably  greater  attention  than  would  tha 
Prince  of  Wales. 

On  entering  Williams  College,  Mr.  Garfield  was  uncommitted  in  national 
politics  ;  perhaps  his  first  lesson  came  from  John  Z.  Goodrich,  who  at  that 
time  represented  in  Congress  the  western  district  of  Massachusetts.  In  the  fall 
of  1855  Mr.  Goodrich  delivered  a  political  address  in  Williamstown  on  the 
history  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  struggle,  and  the  efforts  of  the  handful  of  Re 
publicans  then  in  Congress  to  defeat  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
As  Mr.  Goodrich  spoke,  I  pat  at  Garfield's  side,  and  saw  him  drink  in  every 
word.  He  said  as  we  passed  out,  "  This  subject  is  entirely  new  to  me.  I  am  go 
ing  to  know  all  about  it."  He  sent  for  documents,  studied  them  till  he  became 
perfectly  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  anti-slavery  struggle,  and  from  that 
hour  has  been  the  thorough  Republican,  the  champion  of  right  against  injustice, 
that  he  is  at  this  hour.  LAV ALETTE  WILSON. 

LETTER  FROM  MR.  ELIJAH  CUTTER. 

BOSTON,  June  30,  1880. 

He  had  a  robust  physique  and  an  open  countenance.  There  was  no  glint  in 
his  make-up,  and  no  "style,"  no  assumed  gent.lity,  but  much  of  "nature's 
nobleman11  about  him. 

He  was  a  little  in  advance  of  the  average  class  age,  and  had  an  exuberant 
growth  of  hair,  while  his  maturity  of  thought  and  expression,  not  unmixed  with 
"  WesteruiBms,"  challenged  our  attention.  Yet  in  all  youthful  feelings  and  im 
pulses  he  was  as  truly  a  boy  as  any  in  the  class.  His  unstudied  and  often  unskil 
ful  handling  of  himself  was  always  accompanied  by  real  delicacy  of  feeling  and 
mental  adroitness  and  aptitude.  Garfield's  greatness  was  to  our  youns  eyes  enig 
matical,  but  it  was  real.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  him— body,  soul  and  spirit. 
Nature  had  not  defaulted  in  his  make-up,  and  his  talents  were  of  the  popular 
order. 

That  a  serious  purpose  brought  Garfield  to  college,  and  how  bent  he  was  on 
accomplishing  it,  none  who  knew  him  in  daily  life  could  doubt.  He  accomplished 
much  and  aspired  to  more,  not  alone  in  class  studies,  but  in  other  and  varied 
acquirements.  He  rea  I  much  of  history  and  poetry.  He  was  passionately  fond 
of  Shakespeare,  and  gave  to  debates  and  other  optional  literary  exercises 
much  attention. 

I  think  most  if  not  all  of  our  cla^s  will  remember  Oarfield  pleasantly  for  his 
companionable  traits.  Not  in  the  ordinary  sense  a  "  hail  fellow  well  met,"  he 
had  that  genial  temperament  which  readily  drew  others  about  him.  Who 
among  the  men  of  1856  does  not  recall  among  the  picturesque  memories  of  East 
College,  that  of  Garfield  sitting  on  the  fence  or  rolling  at  full  length  on  the  cam 
pus,  convulsed  with  some  newly  fledsred  joke,  or  apt  nickname  or  droll  persona 
tion,  or  college  yarn  ?  There  were  a  few  fine  specimens  of  nimble  wits  in  the 
class,  of  which  Garfield  might  not  be  reckoned  one,  but  none  more  ready  to  ap- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  41 

predate  and  perpetuate  the  college  humor  than  he,  and  in  all  that  goes  to  main 
tain  the  recreative  and  sporting  life  among  young  men  he  was*  prominent. 

I  should  like  to  speak  of  Garfield  in  his  religious  nature,  and  of  those  high 
moral  convictions  which  rendered  him  conspicuous*  in  college,  not  less  than 
In  his  public  career  since,  and  of  some  deep  struggles  he  went  through  while 
Weighing  the  question  of  entering  upon  politics  as  a  profession.  Some  of  these 
experiences  would  exhibit  Garfield  in  a  true  light,  if  the  boy  is  but  the  father  of 
the  man.  But  I  fear  I  should  trespass  both  upon  his  confidence  and  your  space- 
I  am,  sir,  yours  very  respectfully, 

ELIJAH  CUTTER. 

LETTER  FROM  THE  REV.  E.  N.  MANLEY. 

CAMDEN,  N.  Y.,  July  8,  1880. 

Garfield  played  chess  with  interest  and  success.  The  game  becoming  fas 
cinating,  threatening  study  hours,  and  finally  carrying  him  once  or  twice  near 
to,  if  not  over  into,  the  small  hours  of  night,  he  eaid,  "This  won't  do,"  and 
stopped  short  off. 

We  used  to  have  an  annual  holiday  called  "Mountain-Day."  At  the  close 
of  one,  a  Fourth  of  July  evening,  on  the  summit  of  old  "  Greylock,M  seven 
miles  from  college,  there  was  a  goodly  gathering  ot  students  about  their  camp- 
fire,  when  Garfield,  the  recognized  leader,  taking  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament 
from  his  pocket,  said,  "Boys,  I  am  accustomed  lo  reada  chapter  with  my  absent 
mother  everjr  niaht ;  shall  I  read  aloud  ?"  All  assenting,  he  read  to  us  the  chap 
ter  his  mother  in  Ohio  was  then  reading,  and  called  on  a  classmate  to  pray. 

I  think  it  was  at  the  breaking-up  meeting  of  the  class,  at  graduation,  that, 
being  called  up  for  a  speech,  he  said,  "  -yap  is  a  Greek  proposition  meaning  for. 
Gar-field,  for-the-field.  That  is  what  I  suppose  I  am." 

E.  N.  MANLEY,  Pastor  Presbyterian  Church. 

I  have  saved  for  the  last  a  remarkable  letter  from  the  Rev. 
Edward  Clarence  Smith,  of  Philadelphia,  a  graduate  of  the  Law 
as  well  as  of  the  Divinity  school,  and  an  especial  favorite  with 
the  class  of  1856.  As  will  be  seen,  it  was  written  to  Colonel 
Rockwell,  and  without  the  slightest  notion  that  it  would  ever 
be  wanted  for  publication. 

LETTER  FROM  THE  REV.   EDWARD  CLARENCE  SMITH. 

501  N.  I  IGHTEENTH  ST.,  PHILADELPHIA,  June  15,  1880. 
To  Colonel  A.  F.  ROCKWELL,  U.  S.  Army,  Washington,  D.  C. 

My  Dear  Old  Friend  and  Cltssmate :  I  thank  you  for  your  kind  letter  of  the 
10th  inst.  I  joy  and  rejoice  with  you.  I  am  glad  to  hear  from  one  who  so  thor 
oughly  appreciates  the  great  power  and  worth  of  our  honored  and  beloved  Gar- 
field.  What  you  say  of  his  mental  growtli  and  maturing  powers  I  fully  endorse. 
In  sheer  force  and  reach  of  faculty,  in  breadth  of  thought  and  culture,  I  believe 
he  is  the  peer  of  the  beet  man  in  America  to-day.  But  what  seems  grander  to 


42  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

me  is  his  unswerving  loyalty  to  conscience,  to  truth,  and  to  his  country's  good  ; 
in  a  word,  his  magnificent  manliness. 

I  sincerely  believe  that  there  are  times  in  the  history  of  such  countries  as 
ours  when  God  makes  special  use  of  such  men.  In  this  scientific  age,  persons 
do  not  like  to  hear  the  word  Providence.  But  there  peem  to  be  certain  super 
human  arrangements  and  adjustments  that  philosophy  cannot  explain,  and  that 
work  out  righteous  results.  Human  ingenuity  does  not  devise  them  ;  human 
wisdom  does  not  foresee  them.  I  call  it  the  insertion  of  a  Divine  factor  in  his 
tory.  It  does  not  compel  the  human  will  ;  it  does  not  destroy  p<  rsonal  free 
dom,  but  it  does  achieve  its  results  with  resistless  might,  and  with  infallible  cer 
tainty.  What  think  you  of  a  theologico-philosophico-mathemafical  formula  like 
this  ?  a  X  b— c,  in  which  "  a  "  is  man's  freedom,  intact,  but  finite;  ''b  "  a  divine 
ly  inserted  factor,  unlimited  ;  "  CM  the  providential  plan  of  God  in  the  issue  of 
things.  Thus  freedom  i->  saved,  and  the  ends  of  eternal  Tightness  achieved.  But, 
mathematics  and  metaphysics  aside,  it  seems  to  me  that  our  friend  has  often 
come  near  that  holy  place,  where  Providence  touches  the  machinery  which 
weaves  out  the  plans  of  history,  and,  doubtless  often,  without  being  personally 
conscious  of  it. 

There  are  but  few  sincere  souls  that  are  deemed  worthy  of  such  honor: 
"'Panel  quos  cequus  amavit  Jupiter,  aut  ardens  enexit  ad  celhera  virtus."  They 
are  never  self-seekers.  They  work  where  they  are  placed.  Like  ^Eneas,  in  the 
fable,  they  are  often  covered  with  a  cloud  woven  by  divine  fingers,  and  the 
mass  do  not  see  them.  But,  when  they  are  needed,  the  cloud  breaks  away  ;  they 
are  known  of  men,  and  are  summoned  to  do  God's  work,  sometimes  against 
their  will.  Washington  was  such  a  man,  Lincoln  was  another,  and  I  sincerely  be 
lieve  Garfield  is  a  third.  Such  men  can  be  known  by  their  utter  unselfishness, 
their  inherent  nobility  of  character,  and  always  by  their  unconsciousness  of 
themselves.  Such  men  invariably  impress  their  generation  with  a  sense  of  their 
personality.  To  how  many  millions  is  Lincoln  thoroughly  known,  though  few 
have  ever  seen  him  ?  The  great  heart  of  humanity  recognizes  such  men,  when 
they  pass,  by  a  kind  of  divinely  implanted  instinct. 

I  have  long  felt  that  Gen.  Garfield  was  divinely  intended  to  supply  impor 
tant  links  in  the  chain  of  our  country's  history.  I  have  therefore  anticipated, 
with  you,  his  election  to  the  Presidency.  One  of  my  friends  reminded  me  to 
day  that  just  one  year  ago  I  showed  him  the  photograph  of  Gen.  Garfield  as 
that  of  the  next  President.  I  have  little  doubt  of  bis  success.  You  have  seen 
a  storm-cloud  move  over  the  earth,  and  gather  all  the  electric  forces  along  its 
course  into  affinity  with  it  BO  that  the  lightning  of  the  earth  runs  to  meet  the 
lightning  of  the  cloud  :  so  in  case  of  a  divinely  chosen  man  ;  he  carries  in  his 
great  heart  all  the  instincts,  hopes  and  aspirations  of  an  age.  When  he  ap 
pears  and  comes  near  to  men,  the  Jove  and  acclaim  of  a  nation  run  to  meet  him. 
There  is  in  my  opinion  no  doubt,  of  our  h  nored  friend's  success.  He  cannot 
appear,  but  the  people  will  know  him.  Did  you  observe  this  at  Chicago  ?  The 
machinery  was  well  forged,  riveted,  and  clamped,  air-tight  and  fire-proof.  But 
the  popular  will  burst  the  bonds,  as  though  withes  of  straw.  To  change  the 
figure,  it  seemed  to  be  a  case  of  spontaneous  combustion.  The  party  engines 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  43 

played,  bnt  the  fires  loould  burst  through  chink  and  crevice.    Finally  the  gal 
leries  caught  fire,  and  everything  went. 

Wasn't  it  grand  to  see  our  friend  stand  by  Sherman,  with  heroic  loyalty,  to 
the  last,  protesting  against  the  use  of  his  name,  and  fearing  nothing  so  much  aa 
disloyalty  to  manliness  and  friendship  ?  A  few  words  of  prophecy  :  The  gal 
leries  at  Chicago  caught  fire,  as  we  know.  I  foresee  that  the  flames  will  sweep 
like  a  prairie  fire  over  the  continent ;  burning  to  the  very  edge  of  the  St.  Law 
rence  ;  to  the  surges  that  break  upon  Plymouth  Rock  ;  and  even  to  the  melan 
choly  murmurs  of  the  great  western  sea. 

.    .    .    God  bles*  you.  my  dear  fellow.    Remember  me  affectionately  to  our 
honored  and  loved  friend,  when  you  see  him  ;  and,  though  he  may  never  hear 
from  me  again,  inasmuch  as  he  is  now  likely  to  swing  out  of  my  horizon,  yet  tell 
him  I  glory  in  his  achievements  for  good,  and  shall  ever  wish  him  God-speed! 
Cordially  and  affectionately  yours, 

EDWARD  CLARENCE  SMITH. 

With  all  the  cross-lights  that  are  thrown  on  GarfielcTs  char 
acter  and  career  at  Williams,  by  those  men  who  knew  him  best 
under  circumstances  when  character  is  most  perfectly  develop 
ed,  it  is  needless  to  say  much  in  addition.  No  college  man 
needs  to  be  told  that  his  most  critical  judges  are  his  classmates, 
who  are  the  last  to  bow  before  any  fictitious  or  unworthily  won 
success  in  after  life.  Other  letters  from  Garfield's  classmates 
— not  used  because  more  or  less  repetitions  of  those  already  ir 
type — show,  as  those  printed  above  all  show,  an  enthusiasm  of 
admiration  such  as  I  never  before  even  heard  or  read  of  being 
displayed  by  old  classmates  toward  one  of  their  number,  no 
matter  how  high  distinction  or  power  he  may  have  attained. 
The  secret  is  to  be  found  in  the  perfect  integrity,  warm 
heartedness,  great-heartedness,  and  magnetic  power  of  the  man, 
which  have  made  all  the  sons  of  Williams,  older  and  younger, 
proud  of  him,  jealous  of  his  honor,  and  indignantly  impatient 
of  the  scandals  that  he  frankly  met,  manfully  exposed,  and  fully 
answered,  to  the  satisfaction  of  every  fair-minded  and  intelli 
gent  man  who  has  read  his  answers.  If  such  stanch  Democrats 
among  the  alumni  of  Williams — who  have  known  Garfield 
long  and  well — as  Justice  Field,  late  Democratic  candidate  for 
the  Presidency,  and  as  the  Hon.  David  Dudley  Field,  will  give 
the  slightest  countenance  to  these  exploded  scandals,  I  shall  feel 
that  there  is  some  sort  of  provocation  for  attempting  the  not 


44  THE   LIFE   OP  GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD. 

difficult  task  of  satisfying  any  reasonable  and  unprejudiced  man 
that  partisan  malignity  never  pursued  an  eminent  public  man 
with  less  shadow  of  pretext  than  exists  for  ringing  the  varia 
tions  on  the  scandals  that  have  been  perfectly  answered  by 
James  A.  Garfield. 

(Garfleld  to  Col.  A.  F.  Rockwell,  V.  S.  A.) 

HIRAM,  OHIO,  August  13,  1866. 

My  Dear  Jarvis:  My  visit  to  Williams  has  washed  out  the  footprints  of 
ten  years  and  made  me  a  boy  again.  Strolling  on  the  shore  of  life  it  is  with  re 
luctance  that  I  plunge  back  again  into  the  noisy  haunts  of  men.  The  noble  re 
union  has  wedded  my  heart  more  than  ever  to  the  class  and  to  old  Williams. 
Let  us  not  hereafter  cease  to  pay  that  reverence  which  is  due  to  youth.  I  mean 
to  go  back  to  Williams  as  often  as  I  can.  The  place  and  its  associations  shall  be  to 
me  a  fountain  of  perpetual  youth.  If  wrinkles  must  be  written  upon  our  brows, 
let  them,  not  be  written  upon  the  heart.  The  spirit  should  not  grow  old. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale) 

WASHINGTON,  June  30,  1872. 

After  spending  all  the  day  Monday  on  the  law  case  in  Cleveland,  I  took  the 
train  for  Williamstown,  which  I  reached  in  the  evening  ;  stayed  throughout  the 
examination  arid  until  Friday  morning.  The  exercises  were  very  solemn  and 
impressive.  The  resignation  of  Dr.  Hopkins  was  a  noble  act,  and  the  final  speech 
in  which  he  delivered  up  the  keys  to  his  successor  was  one  of  the  rarest  grand 
eur  and  simplicity.  His  first  paragraph  was  this:  "Why  do  I  resign?  First, 
that  I  may  not.  be  asked  why  I  do  not  resign.  Second,  because  I  believe  in  the 
law  of  averages,  and  the  average  man  of  seventy  is  not  able  to  bear  the  burdens 
of  this  Presidency.  And  yet  I  can  now  bear  it.  Many  of  my  friends  think  I 
should  continue  to  bear  it.  I  think  it  safer  to  test  the  law  of  averages." 

I  stayed  with  Dr.  Hopkins  as  his  guest,  and  it  was  very  touching  when  the 
old  President  bade  me  good-by,  saying,  "  You  will  observe  that  I  reserved  for 
the  concluding  and  final  act  of  my  official  life,  before  laying  down  the  office, 
the  conferring  upon  you  the  degree  of  L.L.D.  I  was  glad  to  have  my  work  thus 
associated  with  your  name." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PROFESSOR,    PRESIDENT,    AND    STATE    SENATOR. 

ON  graduating  from  Williams  with  high  honors,  with  the 
highest  college  popularity,  and  with  the  unreserved  confidence 
and  admiration  of  President  Hopkins  and  all  the  faculty,  Gar- 
field  naturally  returned  to  Hiram  for  the  beginning  of  his  life- 
work  as  a  trained  and  cultured  man.  There  were  his  most 
intimate  and  enduring  associations.  There  the  roots  of  his 
vigorous  nature  had  taken  strong  and  deep  hold  in  all  direc 
tions.  Above  all,  there  lived  Miss  Lucretia  Rudolph,  whose 
family  had  removed  to  Hiram  some  years  before,  to  enjoy  its 
educational  advantages.  The  acquaintance  begun  at  Chester, 
many  years  previous,  when  both  were  students  at  the  Geauga 
Seminary,  had  ripened  into  congenial  companionship  in  the 
studies  and  reading  pursued  together  at  Hiram,  where  he  found 
her  living  near  the  Institute.  She  became  Garfield's  pupil, 
some  time  afterward,  and  recited  to  him  in  Latin,  Greek,  and 
geometry,  as  well  as  in  some  other  branches  of  study.  She  was 
a  remarkably  fine  scholar,  with  keen  perceptions,  quick  in 
tuitions,  and  high  ambitions.  She  sympathized  with  all  of 
Garfield's  strenuous  struggles  for  a  college  education.  She  was 
his  complement  and  better  self.  Their  union  was  inevitable, 
and  they  were  engaged  in  1854,  just  as  Garfield  was  about  to 
set  out  for  Williams.  But  with  this  sensible  understanding, 
that  the  marriage  should  not  occur  until  he  was  in  such  financial 
condition  that  he  would  run  no  risk.  It  was  one  of  those 
deliberate  purposes  whose  fulfilment  the  lovers  put  far  enough 
ahead  to  be  prepared  for  it.  They  were  married  on  the  llth 
of  November,  1858,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hitchcock,  President  of 
the  Western  Reserve  College  at  Hudson,  and  a  happier  mar 
riage,  in  all  respects,  was  never  consummated,  or  one  mere 


46  THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GAHFIELD. 

calculated  to  keep  the  strong  current  of  Garficld's  forceful  and 
active  life  pure,  sweet,  uncontaminated,  and  within  limits. 

Garfleld  became  Professor  of  Latin  arid  Greek  in  1856.  The 
institution  was  poor  and  his  pay  was  small.  But,  as  usual,  his 
activities  burst  out  in  all  sorts  of  channels.  He  not  only  taught 
with  all  his  might,  but  delivered  scientific  lectures,  learning 
his  science  as  he  went  along,  and  got  considerable  pecuniary 
returns  therefrom.  It  was  a  place  and  time  for  u  plain  living 
and  high  thinking."  He  was  used  to  both,  and  revelled  in  the 
play  of  his  manifold  powers.  He  put  new  life  into  the  "  Insti 
tute,"  or  "  College,"  as  it  was  successively  called.  He  easily 
rose  to  be  its  President.  Between  his  college  duties,  lecturing, 
reading  of  all  sorts,  occasional  "preaching"  for  the  "Dis 
ciples  "  around  Hiram,  and  political  speeches  and  orations,  he 
"  threw"  off,  without  fatigue  or  fretting,  work  enough  to  wear 
down  and  out  half  a  dozen  ordinarily  strong  men.  The  im 
pulses  set  in  motion  by  his  enthusiastic  and  varied  activities 
were  felt  all  over  the  Western  Reserve.  The  people  there 
recognized  a  new  moral  and  intellectual  force  in  the  young  and 
masterful  College  President,  whose  upward  growth  was  the 
rising  subject  of  talk.  With  all,  he  was  so  frank,  ingenuous, 
communicative,  manly,  and  unconscious  of  his  own  swift  self- 
promotion  that  all  the  "  plain  people"  took  him  to  their  hearts. 
He  never  "condescended  to  people  of  low  estate."  Conde 
scension  was  a  manifestation  of  pride  or  vanity  which  was 
utterly  impossible  to  his  nature.  For  every  reason — and  es 
pecially  because  Garfield  had  shown  his  equality  to  the  new 
and  startling  issues  of  slavery  and  freedom,  of  secession  and  the 
Union,  in  public  speeches  of  extraordinary  intellectual  grip, 
Clear  perception  of  constitutional  and  jof  "  the  higher1'  law, 
and  oratorical  power — it  was  inevitable  that  the  people  should 
call  him  into  the  public  service,  at  a  period  when  so  many  of 
the  old  leaders  were  faint,  false,  blind,  or  living  in  the  Past. 

lie  was  elected,  in  1859,  by  the  people  of  Summit  and  Portagfe 
Counties,  as  State  Senator.  His  majority  was  large  and  attested 
the  strength  of  his  popularity.  Although  only  twenty-eight 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELTX  47 

years  of  ago,  and  new  to  legislation,  or  any  other  official  experi 
ence,  he  speedily  took  lank  as  one  of  the  readiest  and  best 
informed  debaters  in  a  body  containing  many  experienced  and 
able  men.  Realizing  the  nature  of  the  "  irrepressible  conflict" 
that  was  breaking  up  parties  and  confounding  the  wisdom 
of  old  leaders,  he  was  not  long  in  arraying  himself  alongside  of 
Senator  Jacob  D.  Cox — since  General,  Governor  of  Ohio,  and 
Secretary  of  the  Interior — and  Senator  Monroe,  an  Oberlin  Pro 
fessor,  and  the  trio  were  recognized  as  the  "  Radical  Senators." 

The  fiist  report  which  Garfield  made  as  a  member  of  a  com 
mittee  in  the  State  Senate,  was  on  the  revival  and  completion  of 
the  geological  survey  of  the  State.  In  such  subjects  as  this  his 
enthusiasms  have  always  been  easy  to  be  moved,  and  it  would 
be  difficult  for  him  even  now  to  write  a  document  of  a  dozen 
pages,  which  could  more  comprehensively  and  interestingly 
awaken  the  people  of  Ohio  to  the  importance  of  a  thorough 
geological  survey  of  their  State.  His  faculty  for  grouping 
statistics  and  making  them  eloquent  and  practical  was  well  il 
lustrated  in  this  effective  presentation  of  the  vast  resources  of 
his  State.  A  shorter  report  on  the  subject  of  the  education 
of  the  neglected,  destitute," and  pauper  children,  was  a  fitting 
prelude  to  the  large  and  more  important  efforts  in  the  cause  of 
education,  as  to  which  no  one  of  our  public  men  has  developed 
such  a  combination  of  philosophical  thinking,  applied  to  a  vast 
mass  of  statistics. 

Another  report,  on  the  subject  of  weights  and  measures,  is  a 
brief  but  comprehensive  presentation  of  the  history  of  English 
and  American  systems,  and  of  the  progress  that  has  been  made 
in  approximating  scientific  standards. 

In  the  last  part  of  Garfield 's  service  as  State  Senator  the  fore- 
shadowings  of  civil  war  found  him  ready  in  his  place  to  take 
measures  of  precaution  worthy  of  a  great  and  a  border  State. 
His  speech  on  the  24th  of  January,  1861,  in  behalf  of  a  militia 
bill,  for  raising  and  equipping  60uO  militia,  is  full  of  prevision 
of  the  coming  struggle,  and  of  the  spirit  which  took  him  to  the 
iront  when  the  storm  burst.  In  reply  to  a  reminder  that  at  the 


4:8  THE   LIFE   OP  GE^.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

preceding  session  he  had  opposed  the  bill  as  unnecessary,  he 
frankly  avowed  that  the  change  in  the  times  had  changed  his 
attitude,  and  that  the  prevailing  reason  with  him  for  the  pas 
sage  of  the  bill  was  the  disturbing  and  threatening  aspect  of 
national  affairs.  And  he  met  the  issue  with  characteristic 
courage  and  frankness  as  to  the  protest  against  coercion,  which, 
at  that  time,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  very  prevalent  at  the 
North.  He  said  :  "  If  by  coercion  it  is  meant  that  the  Federal 
Government  shall  declare  and  wage  war  against  a  State,  then  I 
have  yet  to  see  any  man,  Democrat  or  Republican,  who  is  a 
coercionist.  But,  if  by  the  term  it  is  meant  that  the  General 
Government  shall  enforce  the  laws,  by  whomsoever  violated, 
shall  protect  the  property  and  flag  of  the  Union,  shall  punish 
traitors  to  the  Constitution,  be  they  ten  men  or  ten  thousand, 
then  I  am  a  coercionist.  Every  member  of  the  Senate,  by  his 
vote  on  the  eighth  resolution,  is  a  coercionist.  Nine  tenths  of 
the  people  of  Ohio  are  coercionists.  Every  man  is  a  coercionist 
or  a  traitor." 

In  accordance  with  this  speech  wras  his  report  of  a  bill  for  the 
punishment  of  treason,  which  was  a  brief  but  lawyer-like  pre 
sentation  of  the  reasons  for  such  a  bill  at  such  a  time,  with  the 
frank  avowal  that  "  it  is  high  time  for  Ohio  to  enact  a  law  to 
meet  treachery  when  it  shall  take  the  form  of  an  overt  act  ;  to 
provide  that  when  her  soldiers  go  forth  to  maintain  the  Union, 
there  shall  be  no  treacherous  fire  in  the  rear.'1 

Doubtless  his  own  instincts  told  him  that  he  was  sure  to  be 
in  the  front  when  the  hour  of  conflict  came,  arid  like  a  good 
soldier,  as  well  as  a  true  patriot,  his  first  act  was  to  protect  that 
rear. 

It  is  perhaps  impossible  to  give  a  better  illustration  of  the 
manner  in  which  Garfield's  mind,  from  the  period  of  his  young 
manhood  down  to  the  present,  has  worked  out  in  all  directions 
in  order  to  obtain  its  results,  than  is  afforded  by  an  incident  of 
his  service  in  the  Ohio  State  Senate.  He  had  heard  from  a  dis 
tinguished  and  veteran  lawyer  that  the  true  way  to  study  the 
law,  in  his  judgment,  was  for  a  student  in  any  State  to  begin 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  49 

with  a  thorough  reading  of  the  statutes  of  the  State.  The 
beginner  should  familiarize  himself  with  every  effort  to  formu 
late  the  will  of  the  State  into  law,  and  obtain  his  knowledge  of 
legal  principles  from  these  individual  illustrations  of  the  attempt 
to  apply  principles  of  law  to  actual  practice.  This  suggestion 
fell  on  Garfield's  mind  with  great  force  ;  a»d  as  in  his  case 
there  is  seldom  any  long  interval  between  receiving  a  decided 
impression  and  acting  on  it,  he  determined,  not  to  study  all 
the  statutes  of  Ohio,  but  to  go  through  the  statutes  in  search  of 
some  definite  information  with  regard  to  a  particular  subject, 
so  that  he  could  string  his  acquisitions  on  something  and  have 
some  definite  limitations  of  inquiry.  It  finally  occurred  to  him 
that  he  would  take  up  a  single  dollar  and  follow  it  on  its  travels 
through  all  the  avenues  of  taxation  into  the  treasury,  and  of 
expenditure  out  of  it  until  it  finally  returned  to  the  pocket  of 
the  taxpayer,  from  which  it  started.  In  the  pursuit  of  the  for 
tunes  and  adventures  of  this  peculiar  sort  of  a  hero  he  found 
out  just  how  the  law  of  taxation  was  adjusted,  through  what 
officers  it  was  attained,  what  were  the  powers  of  those  officers 
with  regard  to  taxation,  what  were  their  means  of  enforcing  it, 
and  how  the  money  was  expended,  for  what  purposes,  by  what 
officers,  exercising  what  authorities,  and  finally  by  virtue  of 
what  legislation,  for  what  object,  and  through  what  means  it 
returned  to  the  source  of  its  origin.  In  the  course  of  this  highly 
original  method  of  studying  law  he  came  upon  the  startling 
discovery  that,  through  the  negligence  of  the  framers  of  an 
amending  act  of  legislation,  the  State  for  some  few  years  pre 
ceding  had  been  actually  without  any  legal  method  of  ascer 
taining  legal  weights  and  measures.  So  that  the  first  result  of 
his  law  studies  in  this  direction  was  the  necessity  of  repairing  a 
very  serious  legislative  blunder.  The  mental  grasp  and  vigor 
and  the  comprehensive  sweep  of  inquiry  revealed  in  this  single 
illustration  shows  one  of  the  strongest  and  most  peculiar  char 
acteristics  of  Garfield's  intellectual  methods,  and  reveals  the 
secret  of  his  constant  preparedness  for  great  emergencies,  and  of 
the  athletic  vigor  and  rich  and  abounding  fulness  of  his  mind. 


50  THE    LIFE    OF   GEN.   JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Having  thus,  in  the  most  unexpected 
manner,  discovered  the  necessity  for  legislation  to  repair  the 
results  of  legislative  carelessness,  he  developed  the  same 
thoroughness  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  as  legislator.  He  at 
once  moved  the  appointment  of  a  tl  select  committee  of  one," 
which  was  the  ordinary  proceeding  in  such  cases  in  the  Ohio 
Legislature  at  that  time,  to  examine  and  report  on  the  whole 
system  of  weights  and  measures.  The  motion  passed,  and  Gar- 
field  was  appointed  for  that  duty  ;  and  this  report  then  sub 
mitted  and  published  remains  to  this  day  the  most  exhaustive 
legislative  report  on  the  subject  ever  made  in  his  State. 

(Garflild  to  B.  A.  Hmdcde.) 

HIKAM,  May  3,  1858. 
To  B.  A.  HINSDALE,  C.  P.  BOWLER,  H.  M.  JAMES,  ELIZABETH   WOODWARD, 

COKDIE   TlLDEN.  CtC. 

Dear  Frieiids  :  Your  very  kind  request  that,  I  should  continue  my  lectures 
is  received.  I  receive  it  as  a  pleasing  testimonial  of  your  confidence  and  re 
spect,  and  would  willingly  accede  to  your  request  were  it  possible.  For  the 
present  it  is  not  possible,  but  I  will  endeavor  lo  present  a  few  more  lectures  on 
those  topics  before  the  close  of  the  term,  if  circumstances  will  at  all  permit. 

(Garfidd  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

HIKAM,  January  10,  1859. 

The  Sunday  after  the  debate  I  spoke  in  Solon  on  "  Geology  and  Religion," 
and  had  an  immense  audience.  Many  Spiritualists  were  out.  .  .  .  The  re 
ports  I  hear  from  the  debate  are  much  more  decisive  than  I  expected  to  hear.  J 
received  a  letter  from  Bro.  Collins,  of  Chagiin,  in  which  he  says  :  "Since  the 
smoke  of  the  battle  has  partially  cleared  away,  we  begin  to  see,  more  dearly  the 
vicrorv  we  have  gained.""  I  have  yet  to  *-ee  the  first  man  who  claims  that  Demon 
explains  his  position ;  but  they  are  juoilant  over  his  attack  on  the  Bible.  What 
you  purest  ought  to  be  done  I  am  about  to  undertake.  I  go  there  next  Friday 
or  Saturday  evening  and  remain  over  Sunday.  I  am  bound  to  carry  tLe  war  into 
Carthage  and  pursue  that  miserable  atheism  to  its  Jjo/e. 

Bro.  Collins  says  that  a  fe\v  Christians  are  quite  unsettled  because  Denton 
paid,  and  I  admitted,  that  ihe  world  had  exi-t(  d  millions  of  years.  I  am  aston 
ished  at  the  ignorance  of  the  masses  on  these  subjects.  Hugh  l\;iller  has  it  right 
when  he  says  that  "  ihe  battle  of  the  evidences  must  now  be  fought  on  the  field 
of  the  natural  sciences." 

(Garfield  lo  B.  A.  Hin»dale.) 

COLUMBUS,  January  15.  1861. 

My  heart  and  thoughts  arc  full  almost  every  moment  with  the  terrible  reality 
of  our  -.ouutr.) 's  condition.  We  have  learned  so  long  to  look  upon  the  convul- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  51 

eions  of  European  States  as  things  wholly  impossible  here,  that  the  people  are 
slow  in  coming  to  the  belief  th:ir  there  may  bo  any  breaking  np  of  our  institu 
tions,  but  stern,  awful  certainty  is  fastening  upon  the  hearts  of  mm.  I  do  not 
eeejiny  way,  outside  a  miracle  of  G«d,  vvbJlitLjC.uiJLtoid-duU.-wyr  with  -M  its  at 
tendant  horror.-1.  Peaceable  dissolution  is  utterly  impossible.  Indeed,  I  cannot 
eay  that  I  would  wish  it  possible.  To  make  the  conces-ions  demanded  by  tho 
South  would  be  hypocritical  and  sinfnl ;  they  would  neither  be  obeyed  nor  re 
spected.  I  am  inclined  10  believe  that  the  sin  of  slavery  is  one  of  which  it  may 
be  said  that  without,  the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission.  All  that  is 
left  us  as  a  State,  or  say  as  a  company  of  Northern  States,  is  to  arm  and  prepare 
to  defend  ourselves  and  ihe  Federal  C  overnment.  I  believe  the  doom  of  slavery 
is  drawing  near.  Let  war  come,  and  the  slaves  will  gi  t  the  vague  notion  thit  it 
is  waged  for  them,  and  a  magazine  will  be  lighted  whose  explo  ion  w.ll  shake 
the  whole  fabric  of  slaveiy.  Even  if  all  ihis  happen,  I  cannot  yet  abandon  the 
belief  that  one  go  crnment  will  ruie  tin-  continent,  and  its  people  be  one  people. 

Meantime,  what  will  be  the  influence  of  the  times  On  individuals?  Your 
question  is  very  interesting  and  suggestive.  The  doubt  that  hangs  over  the 
whole  issue  bears  touching  also.  Ir  may  be  the  duty  of  our  young  men  to  join 
the  army,  or  they  may  be  drafted  without  their  own  consent.  If  neither  of  these 
things  happen,  there  will  he  a  period  when  old  men  and  young  will  l>e  electrified 
by  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  one  result  will  be  to  make  every  individuality 
more  marked  and  their  opinions  more  decisive.  I  believe  the  times  will  be  even 
more  favorable  than  calm  ones  for  the  formation  of  strong  and  forcible  char 
acters. 

Just  at  this  time  (have  you  observed  the  fact  ?)  we  have  no  man  who  has 
power  to  ride  upon  the  storm  and  direct  it.  The  hour  lias  come,  but  not  the  man. 
The  crisis  will  make  many  such.  But  I  do  not  1  >ve  to  speculate  on  so  painful  a 
theme.  .  .  .  I  am  chosen  to  respond  to  a  toast  on  the  Union  at  the  State 
Printers'  Festival  here  next  Thursday  evening.  It  is  a  sad  and  difficult  theme  at 
this  time. 

(Garjield  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

COLUMBUS,  February  16,  1861. 

Mr.  Lincoln  has  come  and  gone.  The  rush  of  people  to  see  him  at  every 
point  on  the  route  is  astonishing.  The  reception  here  was  plain  and  republican, 
but  very  impressive.  He  has  been  raising  a  respectable  pair  of  dark-brown 
whiskers,  whu-h  decidedly  improve  his  looks,  but  no  appendage  can  ever  render 
him  remarkable  tor  beauty.  On  the  whole,  I  am  greatly  pleased  with  him.  He 
clearly  >hows  his  want  of  culture,  and  the  marks  of  Western  life  ;  but  there  is  no 
touch  of  affectation  in  him,  and  h  •  has  a  peculiar  power  of  impressing  you  that 
he  is  frank,  direct,  and  thoroughly  honest.  His  remarkable  good  sense,  simple 
and  condensed  style  of  expression,  and  evident,  marks  of  indomitable  will,  give 
me  great  hopes  for  the  country.  And.  after  the  long,  dreary  period  of  Buchanan's 
weakness  and  cowardly  imbecility,  the  people  will  hail  a  strong  and  vigorous 
leader. 

I  have  never  brought  my  mind  to  consent  to  the  dissolution  peaceably.  I 
know  it  may  be  asked,  Is  it  not  better  to  dissolve  before  war  than  after  ?  But  I 


52  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.   JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

ask.  Is  it,  not  better  to  fight  before  dissolution  than  after  ?  If  the  North  nnd 
South  cannot  live  in  the  Union  without  war,  how  can  they  live  and  expand  as 
dissevered  nations  without  it  1  May  it  not  be  an  economy  of  bloodshed  to  tell 
the  South  that  disunion  is  war,  and  that  the  United  States  Government  will  pro 
tect  its  property  and  execute  its  laws  at  all  hazards  1 

I  confess  the  great  weight  of  the  thought  in  your  letter  of  the  Plymouth  and 
Jamestown  ideas,  and  their  vital  and  utter  antagonism.  This  conflict  may  yet 
break  the  v«se  by  the  lustiness  of  its  growth  and  strength,  but  the  history  of 
other  nations  gives  me  hope.  Every  government  has  periods  when  its  strength  and 
unity  are  tested.  England  has  passed  through  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  and  the 
days  of  Cromwell.  A  monarchy  is  more  easil}-  overthrown  than  a  republic,  be 
cause  its  sovereignty  is  concentrated,  and  a  single  blow,  if  it  be  powerful  enough, 
will  crush  it. 

Burke,  this  is  really  a  great  time  to  live  in,  if  any  of  us  can  only  catch  the 
cue  of  it.  I  am  glad  you  write  on  these  subjects,  and  you  must  blame  yourself 
for  having  made  me  inflict  on  you  the  longest  letter  I  have  written  to  any  one  in 
more  than  a  year. 

(Garfidd  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

CLEVELAND,  June  14,  1861. 

The  Lieutenant-Colonelcy  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Eesiment  has  been  tendered 
to  me,  and  the  Governor  urges  me  to  accept.  I  am  greatly  perplexed  on  the 
question  of  duty.  I  shall  decide  by  Monday  next. 


(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.') 

HIRAM,  July  12.  1861. 

I  hardly  know  myself,  till  the  trial  came,  how  much  of  a  struggle  it  would 
fcst  m*>  to  give  up  going  into  the  army.  I  found  I  had  so  fully  interested  myself 
in  the  War  that  I  hardly  felt  it  possible  for  me  not  to  be  a  part  of  the  movement- 
But  the  consideration  that  there  w  re  t«o  many  who  could  fill  the  office  tendered 
to  me  and  would  covet  the  place,  more  than  could  do  my  work  here  perhaps,  that, 
I  could  not  but.  feel  it  would  be  to  some  extent  a  reckless  disregard  of  the  good 
or  others  to  accept.  If  there  had  been  a  scarcity  of  volunteers  I  should  have  ac 
cepted.  The  time  may  yet  come  when  I  shall  fec^l  it  r  ght  and  necessary  to  go  ; 
but  I  thought,  ou  the -whole,  that  time  had  not  yet  come. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

GARFIELD,    THE    CITIZEN    SOLDIER. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD'S  military  record  covers  only  a  little  over 
two  years,  but  it  was  so  full  of  peculiar  incidents  and  achieve 
ments  that  it  might  well  form  the  sole  theme  of  a  volume  by 
some  such  accomplished  military  student  and  writer  as  General 
J.  Watts  DePeyster — "  Anchor'1 — whose  thorough  appreciation 
of  Thomas  would  qualify  him  largely  for  writing  of  a  man  who 
was  after  Thomas's  own  heart,  as  a  soldier  and  as  a  man.  But 
the  plan  and  limits  of  this  book  forbid  anything  like  a  detailed 
account  of  Garfield,  the  soldier.  The  truth  is,  that  there  is  so 
much  of  him  that  the  faithful  biographer  is  dismayed  at  the  im 
possibility  of  even  the  most  condensed  review  of  his  manifold 
and  diverse  achievements,  in  a  single  volume.  For  this  reason 
I  rejoice  at  the  multiplicity  of  his  biographers.  There  is 
material  enough  for  each  of  them  to  work  up  into  a  valuable 
and  interesting  "  Life." 

But  Garfield  was  only  a  soldier,  as  fifteen  hundred  thousand 
other  patriotic  citizens  were  soldiers.  He  was  a  living,  and  the 
ablest,  representative  of  the  class  whom  Quincy  Ward  has  so 
nobly  typified  in  enduring  bronze,  in  the  kt  Seventh  Regiment" 
monument  that  adorns  Central  Park—  the  citizen  soldier  of 
ability,  culture,  enlightened  patriotism,  and  readiness  for  any 
duty  required  by  the  State  ;  who  does  not  love  nor  follow  fight 
ing  as  a  profession  and  for  a  livelihood,  but  who  promptly 
adopts  fighting  as  a  duty,  when  the  State  can  only  be  saved  by 
the  self-sacrifice  of  its  citizens.  Of  this  class  Garfield  was  a  great 
representative,  in  many  respects.  He  was  a  splendid  specimen 
of  stalwart  manhood  ;  he  had  wonderful  capacity  to  master  any 
new  science  ;  he  had  won  mastery  over  men  and  the  art  of  com 
manding  them,  through  purely  intellectual  and  moral  methods  ; 


54  THE   LIFE   OP   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

he  had  come  to  fill  <i  large  place  of  beneficent  influence  among 
his  fellows,  with  widening  opportunities  daily  opening  before 
him  in  the  parallel  paths  of  duty  and  ambition,  at  home,  and 
had  much  to  sacrifice  in  seeking  another  field  of  action  ;  his 
very  success  as  a  teacher  and  as  a  public  man  had  so  put  him 
under  bonds  that  he  could  not  lightly  accept  even  afield  officer's 
commission,  without  that  cool,  deliberate,  solemn  sense  of  over 
powering  duty  which  ennolled  and  dignified  the  sacrifice  ht  final 
ly  made,  without  a  lingering  qualm  or  compunction.  At  first  he 
was  inclined  to  refuse  the  commission  offered  him  by  Governor 
Dcnnison,  who  knew  his  powers  and  capacities,  and  had  in 
trusted  him  with  an  important  mission  to  the  Governor  of 
Indiana,  from  whom  lie  obtained  the  loan  of  5000  stand  of  arms 
for  the  swarming  crowds  of  Ohio  volunteers.  But  it  was  inevi 
table  from  the  nature  of  the  man  that  he  should  finally  take  the 
position  where  service  involved  the  greatest  danger  and  respon 
sibility. 

He  set  about  raising  recruits  for  the  Forty-second  Ohio  Vol 
unteers  among  the  men  who  had  been  inspired  by  his  patriotic 
appeals  ;  among  his  students  and  constituents.  It  was  mainly  by 
his  efforts  that  the  regiment  was  filled  up  ;  to  a  good  degree,  by 
"Disciples,"  whose  patriotism  was  consecrated  by  religious 
zeal,  lie  was  first  commissioned,  in  August,  1801,  as  Lieuten 
ant-Colonel,  and  soon  promoted  to  be  Colonel,  to  the  universal 
satisfaction  of  his  men.  On  the  17th  of  December,  18G1,  he 
took  his  well-drilled  regiment  from  Camp  Chase  to  the  front. 
In  the  short  time  allowed  him  he  had  gained  as  much  military 
knowledge  as  most  of  our  volunteer  colonels  would  have  been 
able  to  acquire  in  years.  Throwing  the  whole  energy  of  his  in 
comparable  working  powers  into  his  new  profession,  he  forgot 
everything  but  the  one  duty  of  transforming  a  mass  of  untrained 
patriots  into  a  military  machine.  His  success  was  as  marvellous 
as  it  was  natural.  When  he  reported  to  General  Buell,  in  Louis 
ville,  that  able  soldier  and  keen  judge  of  men  at  once  saw  that 
his  new  reinforcement  meant  more  than  a  fresh  regiment  of  raw 
troops  ;  it  was  the  acquisition  of  a  great  brain,  inspired  with 


m,. 


COLONEL  GARF1EH), 


56  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

the  highest  moral  courage  and  resolve,  and  sustained  by  the 
body  of  an  athlete.  The  new  colonel  was  not  to  be  put  on 
guard  duty  and  subject  to  the  drill  and  instructions  of  a  West 
Point  martinet  ;  he  was  to  have  free  scope  for  his  resources  in 
an  independent  command,  and  to  be  given  a  task  not  laid  down 
in  the  books,  nor  taught  at  West  Point,  that  of  clearing  out  of 
Eastern  Kentucky  a  large  force  of  rebels,  who  outnumbered  his 
own  command,  from  a  vast  tract  of  wild,  difficult,  and  naturally 
defensible  country.  Nor  did  Buell  tell  him  how  to  do  this 
tremendous  job.  .He  asked  Garfield  to  make  his  own  plans,  and 
when  they  were  made  and  reported  Buell  saw  at  a  glance  that 
he  had  not  mistaken  Garfield's  genius  for  fighting. 

Let  us  take  a  brief  glance  at  the  big  job  which  Buell  in 
trusted  to  a  fresh  volunteer  colonel,  both  in  the  planning  and 
in  the  execution.  Humphrey  Marshall,  obese  but  able,  had 
invaded  Eastern  Kentucky  with  5000  men  ;  had  fortified  a 
natural  stronghold  at  Paintville,  and  was  overrunning  the  whole 
region  with  small  detachments,  recruiting  for  the  rebel  forces, 
discoin'aging,  persecuting,  and  robbing  "Union  men.  The  area 
of  his  operations  was  larger  than  that  of  Massachusetts  ;  inhab 
ited  by  about  100,000  poor  and  ignorant  white  men  and  a  few 
thousand  negroes.  Marshall  was  acting  more  as  a  politician 
than  as  a  soldier.  His  scattered  but  effective  operations  were 
part  of  a  general  plan  to  wrest  Kentucky  from  the  Union.  To 
Garfield  was  assigned  the  formidable  task  of  defeating  a  pro 
ject  that  would  have  been  well-nigh  fatal  to  the  Union  cause, 
had  it  succeeded.  To  accomplish  it  he  had  only  four  regi 
ments  of  infantry  and  600  cavalry— in  all  about  2500  men — di 
vided  by  large  stretches  of  mountain  country  that  was  harried 
by  guerillas  and  full  of  disloyal  people.  He  had  to  send  com 
munications  to  his  scattered  forces,  to  insure  a  co-operative 
movement,  and  then  run  the  risk  of  being  defeated  in  detail 
before  his  troops  could  be  massed  ;  and,  after  all  that  was  safely 
accomplished,  he  had  to  attack  twice  his  own  force,  strongly 
intrenched  in  commanding  positions. 

He  succeeded  in  getting  his  dispatches  carried  to  his  sepa- 


'THE   LIFE   OF   GEIST.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD.  57 

rate  forces,  through  his  judgment  in  selecting  a  "native" 
scout,  John  Jordan,  whose  adventures,  expedients,  and  hair 
breadth  escapes  in  getting  through  the  guerilla  bands  have 
been  the  subject  of  a  most  romantic  story.  After  a  ride  of  a 
hundred  miles,  the  fearless  and  keen-witted  scout  took  to  Col 
onel  Cranor,  at  Paris,  at  midnight,  an  order  to  move  his  com 
mand,  the  40th  Ohio,  800  strong,  to  Prestonburg,  and  to  trans 
mit  an  order  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Woolford,  at  Stamford,  to 
join  him  with  three  hundred  cavalry.  The  scout  encountered 
like  perils  on  his  return,  but  got  safely  to  Garfield's  tent,  on  the 
6th  of  January,  at  midnight.  So  far  all  went  well. 

Garfield  at  once  prepared  to  move  his  own  column  of  1400 
men  on  Marshall's  intrenched  5000 — known  to  be  that  number 
from  an  intercepted  letter  which  Garfield  had  in  his  pocket,  and 
prudently  kept  secret.  Before  this  Garfield  had  sent  false 
scouts  into  Marshall's  camp,  who  made  him  believe  that  the 
Union  force  was  many  times  its  actual  size.  There  were  three 
roads  to  Marshall's  position.  Garfield  manoeuvred  so  as  to 
deceive  the  enemy  as  to  his  real  line  of  attack,  drove  in  Mar 
shall's  pickets  along  the  river,  and  lured  Marshall  into  detach 
ing  1000  infantry  and  a  battery  to  resist  a  supposed  attack  on 
Piiintville.  Then  he  is  led  to  apprehend  danger  from  another 
quarter,  and  transfers  these  troops  to  the  western  road.  Two 
hours  later  the  picket  line  on  the  centre  is  driven  in,  Mar 
shall  is  confused,  and  Paintvillc  abandoned. 

On  the  3th  of  January  Marshall  learns  from  a  spy  that  Cra 
nor,  with  3300  men  (!),  is  within  half  a  day's  march  to  the 
westward.  On  this  the  statesman-soldier  gets  utterly  discour 
aged,  breaks  up  his  camp,  abandons  most  of  his  supplies,  and 
seeks  safety  in  summary  retreat.  When  Cranor's  command  ar 
rives,  it  is  utterly  exhausted  and  unfit  to  move.  But  Garfield 
is  full  of  fight,  takes  1100  volunteers,  400  of  them  from  Cranor's 
command,  and  on  the  9th  moves  toward  Prestonburg,  sending 
his  cavalry  to  harass  the  retreating  enemy.  Near  Prestonburg 
he  hears  of  Marshall  three  miles  further  up  the  stream,  and  sends 
hack  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Sheldon,  at  Paintvillc,  to  bring  up 


58  THE    LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

all  the  available  men  for  a  fight  the  next  morning.  All  night 
long  he  is  getting  full  knowledge  of  Marshall's  positions  and 
of  the  topography.  Again  he  sends  John  Jordan  into  the 
enemy's  camp,  to  learn  his  exact  position.  Breaking  camp  at  4 
A.M.  he  skirmishes  aggressively  and  successfully  till  noon,  when 
he  reaches  the  main  line,  and  then  fiercely  charges  5000  men, 
with  twelve  pieces  of  artillery,  finely  placed  on  a  steep  and 
rocky  hill,  with  his  1100  heroes,  all  animated  by  his  own  spirit, 
but  unprovided  with  a  single  cannon.  It  was  a  desperate  h?nd- 
to-hand  fight  for  five  hours,  with  charges  and  repulses,  and 
fresh  charges,  till  at  sunset  the  5000  are  about  ready  to  swoop 
down  on,  envelop,  and  destroy  the  heroic  1100,  or  what  was 
left  of  them.  It  was  a  straining  crisis  for  Garfield,  who  was 
praying  for  Cranor  and  Sheldon,  as  Wellington  prayed  for 
"  night  or  Blucher. "  At  the  same  time  a  rebel  major,  from  a 
high  elevation,  saw  the  advancing  blue-coats,  and  turned  rap 
idly  and  gave  the  word.  In  a  moment  Marshall's  demoralized 
force  was  whirling  away,  in  full  retreat,  and  Garfield  was  the 
victor  in  the  most  important  small  engagement  of  the  war. 
Pursuit  of  the  flying  foe  was  instant,  and  the  cheers  of  the 
"  Boys  in  Blue'1  made  the  valley  ring.  Boon  the  reports  of 
the  brief  and  brilliant  campaign  cheered  loyal  hearts  that  had 
not  felt  the  solace  of  victory  since  the  disaster  at  Big  Bethel. 

Within  ten  days  Thomas  had  routed  Zollikoffer,  and  Kentucky 
was  saved  to  the  Union. 

Bup.ll  had  virtually  made  Garfield  a  Brigadier,  by  giving  him 
a  brigade  to  command,  and  had  given  him  an  independence  of 
planning  and  execution  such  as  many  corps  commanders  never 
enjoyed.  Lincoln  gave  him  a  Brigadier's  commission,  dated 
on  the  day  of  the  fight  I  have  briefly  sketched.  But  the  fight 
ing  was  the  smallest  nart  of  his  achievement.  (See  note.) 

NOTE.— General  Bnell  recognized  both  the  brillhncy  and  importance  of  Gar- 
field's  operation*  in  a  general  order,  which  contained  the  following  : 

"  They  have  overcome  foimidable.  difficulties  in  the  character  of  the  country, 
the  condition  of  the  roads,  and  the  inclemency  of  the  season  :  and,  without  ar 
tillery,  have  in  several  engagements,  terminating  in  the  battle  of  Middle  Creek 
on  the  10th  inst.  (January),  driven  the  enemy  from  his  intrenched  positions  and 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  59 

Having  cleared  out  Humphrey  Marshall's  forces,  Garfield 
moved  his  command  to  Pikcton,  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
above  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Sandy,  from  which  place  he  cov 
ered  the  whole  region  about  with  expeditions,  breaking  up 
rebel  camps  and  perfecting  his  work.  Finally,  in  that  poor 
and  wretched  country,  his  supplies  gave  out,  and,  as  usual, 
taking  care  of  the  most  important  matter  himself,  he  went  to 
the  Ohio  River  for  supplies,  got  them,  seized  a  steamer,  and 
loaded  it.  But  there  was  an  unprecedented  freshet,  navigation 
was  very  perilous,  and  no  captain  or  pilot  could  be  induced  to 
take  charge  of  the  boat.  Garfield  at  once  availed  himself  of 
his  canal-boat  experience,  took  charge  of  the  boat,  stood  at  the 
helm  for  forty  out  of  forty-eight  hours,  piloted  the  steamer 
through  an  untried  channel  full  of  dangerous  eddies  and  wild 
currents,  and  saved  his  command  from  starvation. 

In  the  middle  of  March  he  made  the  famous  Pound  Gap  ex 
pedition,  which  deserves  a  separate  chapter.  Briefly,  Marshall 
had  retired  to  this  narrow  pass  in  the  Cumberland  Mountains, 
easily  made  impregnable,  and  a  most  admirable  position  from 
which  to  swoop  down,  with  plundering  parties,  into  Kentucky. 
No  direct  attack  could  have  dislodged  the  500  rebels  left  con 
stantly  on  guard  in  the  Gap,  defended  by  breastworks  and 
quartered  in  log  huts.  So  Garfield  made  a  sudden  forced  march 
of  two  days,  reached  the  foot  of  the  Gap  at  night,  and  the  next 
morning  made  the  rebels  believe  that  he  meant  a  direct  attack, 
while  he  marched  the  most  of  his  command  through  a  narrow 
and  tortuous  mountain  path,  led  by  a  faithful  guide  in  a  blind 
ing  snow  storm,  and  suddenly  pounced  down  on  the  astonished 
rebels  in  the  rear  of  their  fortifications.  The  surprise  and  the 
victory  were  complete  ;  the  nest  and  stronghold  of  the  plun 
derers  was  captured,  a  large  number  of  them  were  killed, 
wounded,  or  taken  prisoners,  and  Marshall's  campaign  was 

forced  him  back  into  the  mountains  with  the  loss  of  a  large  amount  of  baggage 
and  stores,  and  mmy  of  his  men  killed  and  captured.  These  services  have  called 
into  action  the  highest  qualities  of  a  soldier— fortitude,  perseverance,  aiid  cour 
age.5' 


60  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

brought  to  a  ridiculous  close,  whereupon  Garfield  marched  back 
his  command  to  Piketon,  which  he  reached  in  four  days  from 
his  departure,  having  taken  his  command  about  a  hundred  miles 
over  a  rough  and  difficult  country.  On  his  return  he  was  ordered 
to  report  to  Buell  in  person.  The  latter  was  moving  to  join 
Grant  at  Savannah,  but  Garfield  overtook  the  army,  was  assign 
ed  to  the  command  of  a  brigade,  and  took  part  in  the  second 
day's  fight  at  Shiloh.  He  was  in  all  the  operations  in  front 
of  Corinth,  rebuilt  and  guarded  the  bridges  on  the  Memphis 
and  Charleston  Railroad,  and  did  his  share  in  erecting  fortifi 
cations.  He  fell  a  victim  to  the  malariousness  of  that  region  and 
was  prostrated  during  the  months  of  July  and  August.  "When 
he  became  convalescent  he  was  ordered  to  Washington,  where 
his  then  recognized  ability  was  needed  on  the  Fitz  John  Porter 
court-martial,  the  most  impartially  constituted,  ablest,  and 
fairest  court  of  the  sort  ever  organized  in  this  country.  On  its 
adjournment,  in  January,  1863,  he  was  sent  to  Rosecrans,  who 
was  at  first  somewhat  prejudiced  against  Garfield,  regarding 
him  as  a  "  political  preacher.1'  But  a  few  days  of  intercourse 
revealed  the  absurdity  of  this  apprehension  ;  Rosecrans  saw  the 
prodigious  resources  and  frank  manliness  of  Garfield,  and  made 
him  "  Chief  of  Staff,"  in  the  full  European  sense  of  the  word, 
the  first  appointment  of  that  sort  made  in  our  army.  It  was  a 
high,  responsible,  difficult  position,  only  second  to  that  of  the 
commander  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  Such  rapid  pro 
motion,  won  without  pressure  or  influence,  proceeding  from 
the  recognition  of  demonstrated  qualities  by  two  such  able  sol 
diers  as  Buell  and  Rosecrans,  the  very  opposites  in  temperament 
and  natural  predilections,  shows  that  Garfield  only  needed  time 
and  opportunity  to  have  become  one  of  the  great  commanders 
of  the  Union  Army. 

Acting  as  the  counsellor,  adviser  and  executive  officer  of 
Rosecrans,  Garfield's  vigorous  nature  found  active  employment 
in  all  the  operations  in  Middle  Tennessee.  He  was  everywhere 
felt.  Tic  grew  daily  in  the  confidence  of  Rosecrans.  The  crown 
ing  epoch  of  his  service  as  Chief  of  Staff  came  with  the  great 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  61 

battle  of  Chickamauga.  The  test  of  his  moral  courage  and 
individuality  had  come  before.  Rosecraus,  with  his  passion  for 
completing  all  details,  had  delayed  the  advance  which  Stanton 
was  impatiently  urging.  Finally  Rosecrans  asked  the  written 
opinions  of  his  seventeen  generals  as  to  the  advisability  of  an 
advance.  Every  one  was  opposed  to  it.  But  Garfield  prepared 
a  masterly  paper,  reviewing  all  the  written  opinions,  analyzing 
their  objections  and  answering  them.  His  argument  was  irre 
sistible.  With  such  a  paper  on  file  Rosecrans  could  no  longer 
delay,  and  the  army  moved,  but  it  was  commanded,  for  the 
most  part,  by  officers  who  felt  mortified  over  the  powerlessness 
of  their  protests.  One  of  them,  General  Crittenden,  said  to  Gar- 
field,  as  the  army  began  to  move  : 

"  It  is  understood,  sir,  by  the  general  officers  of  this  army,  that 
this  movement  is  your  work.  I  wish  you  to  understand  that  it  is 
a  rash  and  fatal  move,  for  which  you  will  be  held  responsible." 

Garfield  resolutely  took  the  responsibility  that  was  thrown  on 
him.  Then  followed  the  fight  for  the  objective  point  of  the 
advance,  Chickamauga.  That  the  battle  was  not  a  great  and 
decisive  Union  victory,  the  best  military  ciitics  now  agree,  was 
due  to  the  misunderstanding  of  a  hastily  written  order  to  Gen 
eral  Wood,  commanding  the  right  wing.  All  the  other  orders 
were  written  by  Garfield.  This  was  written  by  Rosecrans  him 
self.  Obeying  this  fatal  order  too  literally,  Wood  opened  a  gap 
in  our  line  which  the  rebels  quickly  saw  and  entered,  breaking 
the  right  fiom  the  centre  and  sweeping  Rosecrans  and  his  chief 
of  staff  with  a  mass  of  demoralized  troops  toward  Chattanooga. 
Rosecrans  thought  that  all  was  lost.  Brave  to  desperation,  so 
far  as  his  own  life  was  concerned,  he  was  easily  "  stampeded  " 
when  his  command  seemed  broken.  But  Garfield 's  resources 
rose  with  the  emergency.  He  implored  Rosecrans  to  let  him 
seek  the  centre  and  make  it  a  rallying  point  from  which  to  pre 
vent  utter  rout,  by  well-directed  fighting.  His  instinct  tolcl  him 
that  Thomas,  commanding  the  centre,  was  holding  his  own 
with  stubborn  sturdmess.  With  the  help  of  '>  The  Rock  of 


62  THE  LIFE  OF  GEN.  JAMES  A.  GAKFIELD. 

Chickamauga,"  the  proud  name  won  by  Thomas  on  that  trying 
day,  he  could  prevent  defeat  from  becoming  utter  rout  and 
destruction.  Rosecrans  bade  Garfiekl  God-speed  and  has 
tened  Lack  to  the  river,  to  prepare  for  throwing  up  works  at 
Chattanooga,  behind  which  to  save  the  swarming  fugitives  from 
the  front. 

Garfield,  with  a  few  orderlies,  set  out  on  the  perilous  ride, 
which  was  far  more  momentous  and  trying  than  Phil.  Sheridan's 
famous  "Ride  to  Winchester."  Through  the  forest  and  over  hills; 
not  knowing  where  tiie  rebel  picket  lines  might  be  ;  an  orderly 
•wounded  near  him  and  his  own  horse  shot  under  him  ;  with  chaos 
in  his  rear  and  the  unknown  in  front — rode  Garfield,  carrying  in 
his  head  all  the  plans  of  battle  and  the  latest  news  from  the 
doubled-up  right.  His  arrival  at  Thomas's  headquarters  was 
like  the  reinforcement  of  a  corps.  lie  aided  Thomas  by  his  in 
telligence  and  advice,  and  supplemented  the  old  veteran's 
stanchness  by  a  fresh  and  aggressive  enthusiam.  He  won  nobly 
that  day  a  Major-General's  commission,  and,  what  he  valued  far 
more,  the  heart  of  "  Old  Pap  Thomas." 

After  Chickamauga,  Garfield  was  sent  to  Washington,  to 
reconcile  the  differences  between  Ilosecrans  and  Stanton,  and  to 
state  to  Mr.  Lincoln  the  condition  and  needs  of  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland,  which  he  did  with  such  clearness  and  vigor  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  told  him  he  had  never  before  understood  so  per 
fectly  the  actual  situation  of  any  aimy  in  the  field.  In  Decem 
ber,  1803,  Garfield,  very  reluctantly,  resigned  his  commission, 
in  order  to  perform  the  duties  to  which  his  constituents  had 
called  him,  nearly  fifteen  months  before. 

During  all  of  his  phenomenally  active  military  career  he  had 
constantly  kept  up  his  literary  culture.  He  took  with  him 
several  small  volumes  of  Harper's  edition  of  the  classics,  and 
read  them  whenever  he  could  steal  a  few  moments  of  leisure. 
He  read  a  little  Latin  every  day.  He  rather  settled  down  on 
Horace  as  his  favorite,  regarding  him  as  li  the  most  philosophic 
of  the  pagans."  He  also  kept  up  his  interest  in  all  home  mat 
ters,  wrote  often  to  his  wife  and  to  his  friend  Hinsdale,  and  in 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAUFIELD.  03 

all  ways  did  what  he  could  to  nourish  his  affections,  to  retain 
his  culture,  and  to  keep  up  a  realizing  sense  of  his  citizenship,  in 
the  broadest  and  highest  sense  of  that  noble  word. 

In  hie  official  report  of  operations  in  Middle  Tennessee,  General  Rosecrans 
P'iys  Garfield  the  following  high  but  deserved  t'ibute  ; 

"  Ail  my  fluff  merited  my  warm  approbation  for  ability,  zeal,  ami  devotion 
to  duly ;  but  I  am  sure  they  will  not  consider  it  invidious  if  I  especially  mention 
Brigadier-General  Gaijield,  ever  active,  prudent  and  sagacious.  1  feel  much 
indebted  to  him  for  both  counsel  and  assistance  in  the  administration  of  this 
army.  He  possesses  the  energy  and  the  instinct  of  a  great  wmmander." 

General  Rosecrans  had  lately  given  his  opinion  of  General  Garfield  to  a 
California  reporter.  Ho  said:  "Garfield  was  a  member  of  my  military  family 
during  ihe  early  part  of  the  war.  V\  hen  he  came  to  my  headquarters  I  must 
confess  that  I  had  a  prejudice  against  him,  as  I  understood  he  was  a  preacher 
who  had  gone  into  politics,  and  a  man  of  that  cast  I  was  naturally  opposed  to. 
The  more  I  saw  of  him  the  better  I  liked  him,  and  finally  I  gave  him  his  choice 
of  a  brigade,  or  to  become  my  chief  of  staff.  He  chose  the  latter.  His  views 
were  large,  and  he  was  possessed  of  a  thorougnly  comprehensive  mind.  Late  in 
the  summer  of  1803  he  came  10  me  one  day.  and  said  that  he  had  be  en  asked  to 
accept  tlie  Republican  nomination  for  Congress  from  ih  •  Ashtahula  (O.)  district, 
and  ask'ed  my  adcice  as  to  whether  he  ought  to  accept  it,  atid  whether  he  could 
do  so  honorably.  J  replied  that  I  not  only  thought  he  could  accept  it  u-ith  honor, 
but  that  I  deemed  it  to  be  his  duty  to  do  so.  '  The  war  is  not  yet  over,'  I  said, 
'nor  will  it  be  for  some  lime  10  come.  There  will  be  many  questions  arising  in 
Congress  which  require  not  alone  statesmanlike  treatment,  but  the  advice  of 
men  having  an  acquaintance  with  military  affairs  will  be  needful  ;  and  for  that 
and  several  other  reasons,  yon  would,  I  believe,  do  equally  as  good  service  to 
this  country  in  Congress  as  in  Jhe  Held.'  1  consider  G.irh'eld  head  and  shoulders 
above  any  of  the  men  named  before  the  convention,  and  far  superior  to  any  of 
the  political  managers  upon  the  lloor." 

(Oarjield  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

MuRFREESBORoroH,  Tenn.,  Feb.  16.  1863. 

My  horses  and  part  of  my  staff  were  delayed  on  the  Cumberland  by  the 
attack  on  Fort  Donelson,  and  did  not  reach  here  until  a  few  days  ago.  J  have 
been  the  guest  of  Gen.  Rosecrans  since  my  arrival,  and  I  have  never  been  more 
acquainted  with  the  interior  life  of  any  man  in  the  fame  length  of  time  in  my 
life.  He  want-*  me  to  stay  with  him  as  chief  of  staff  instead  of  taking  com 
mand  of  a  division.  I  am  greatly  in  doubt  which  to  choose.  He  is  one  of  the 
f e  v  men  in  this  war  who  enters  upon  all  his  duties  with  a  deeply  devout  religious 
feeling,  and  looks  to  God  as  the  disposer  of  t.ho  victory.  His  very  able  report  of 
the  late  battle  here  ends  wuh  this  fine  seii'ence  from  ihe  Catholic  Church  ser 
vice,  which  he  does  not  quote  \\  ith  any  cant  or  affectation  :  "  Non  nobis,  Doiui- 
ne,  noL  nobis,  Bed  tuo  nomine  da  gloriam." 


64  THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

(Garfidd  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

HEADQUARTEKS,  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  CUMBERLAND, 
MUKFREESB  ROUGH,  May  26,  1863. 

Tell  all  those  copperhead  students  for  me  that,  were  I  there  in  charge  of  the 
school,  I  would  not  only  dishonoiably  dismiss  them  from  the  school,  but,  if 
they  remained  in  the  place  and  persisted  in  their  cowardly  treason,  I  would  apply 
to  Gen.  Burnside  to  enforce  General  Order  No.  38  in  their  cases.  .  .  . 

If  these  young  traitors  are  in  earnest  fliey  should  go  to  the  Southern  Con 
federacy,  where  they  can  receive  full  sympathy.  Tell  them  all  that  I  will  furnish 
them  passes  through  our  lines,  where  they  can  join  Vallandigham  and  their  other 
friends  till  such  time  as  they  can  destroy  us  and  come  back  home  as  conquerors 
of  their  own  people,  or  c.m  learn  wisdom  and  obedience. 

I  know  this  apparently  is  a  small  matter,  but  it  is  only  apparently  email.  We 
do  not  know  what  the  developments  of  a  month  may  bring  forth,  and,  if  such 
things  be  permitted  at  Hiram,  they  may  anywhere.  The  Rebels  catch  up  all 
such  facts  as  sweet  morsels  of  comfort,  and  every  such  influence  lengthens  the 
war  and  adds  to  the  bloodshed. 


CHAPTER  Yin. 

GAKFIELD    IN    CONGRESS. 

WHILE  it  was  clear  to  himself  and  to  his  military  superiors 
that  he  had  probably  before  him  a  brilliant  military  career,  the 
Union  men  of  the  Nineteenth  Congressional  District  of  Ohio, 
without  the  slightest  solicitation,  effort,  or  co-operation  on  his 
part,  nominated  him  to  represent  them  in  Congress.  Such  a 
nomination,  from  such  a  source,  was  the  highest  honor  which  any 
man,  under  the  circumstances,  could  have  received.  It  would 
have  been  a  high  compliment  for  any  man,  however  long  in  the 
public  service,  to  represent  the  constituency  which  had  kept 
Joshua  R.  Giddings  continuously  in  Congress  for  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  while  he  was  in  the  forefront  of  the  fight  against 
human  slavery.  To  Garfield,  then  less  than  thirty-one  years  of 
age,  it  was  an  especially  distinguished  tribute.  It  came  from 
those  who  knew  him  from  the  beginning — all  his  hardships, 
privations,  struggles,  conquests  and  characteristics.  The  "  old 
Nineteenth" — hardest  of  all  districts  to  please — took  him  to  its 
heart,  draped  him  with  the  mantle  of  Giddings,  and  adopted 
him  as  its  leader. 

NOTE. — In  considering  Garfield's  Congressional  career,  amid  the  compara 
tively  few  home  struggles  it  brought  him,  it,  is  all  important  to  realize  what  sort 
of  constituency  it  has  been  that  has  nine  times  successively  placed  him  in  the 
seat  of  Joshua  It.  Giddings.  To  represent  the  tenement  house  districts  of  New 
York  for  seventeen  years  is  one  thing.  To  represent  a  keenly  intelligent,  moral, 
and  independent  rural  constituency  in  New  England  or  New  York  for  a  long  series 
of  years,  is  quite  another  thing.  Such  a  constituency  as  the  latter  has  honored 
Gai-field  with  its  continuous  verdicts  of  "  Well  djne,  good  and  faithful  servant," 
with  thi-se  es  ential  d.fferenccs,  viz.:  First,  the  '-Western  Reserve."  in 
Northern  Ohio,  was  settled  by  the  manliest,  most  enterprising,  vigorous  and  in 
dependent  sons  of  New  England  and  New  York.  They  were  the  •'  picked  men 
of  peoples,"  as  were  the  original  settlers  of  the  Eastern  States.  Bluff  old  "Ben" 
Wade  once  talked  about  a  characteristic  "  Western. Reserve"  constituent,  who, 


68  THE   LIFE   OF   GEX.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

And  yet  the  acceptance  of  this  proud  position  cost  him  many 
severe  struggles  between  contending  convictions  of  duty.  He 
wouli  not  have  left  the  army  under  any  consideration,  had  he 
not,  like  most  of  our  soldiers  and  statesmen  at  that  time, 
firmly  believed  that  the  rebellion  would  be  virtually  subdued 
within  the  fifteen  months  that  would  elapse  between  that  time 
and  the  opening  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress,  for  which  he 
was  nominated. 

Even  after  he  went  into  Congress,  as  the  war  was  still 
doubtful,  his  impulse  to  resign  and  go  back  into  the  army  was 
very  strong  After  the  removal  of  Rosecrans,  his  former  com 
mander,  General  Thomas,  who  was  a  dear  friend  of  Garfield, 
was  very  anxious  to  have  him  come  back  into  the  army,  and 
tendered  him  in  a  private  letter  the  command  of  an  army  corps 
if  he  would  go  there.  Thomas  had  become  the  head  of  the 
whole  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  and  with  such  an  invitation 

"  after  he  h'id  thought  and  prayed  over  a  political  question  for  twenty-four  hours, 
was  pretty  sure  to  be  right,  and  could  not  he  moved."  It  is  needless  to  Fay  that 
this  old  supporter  of  Wade  is  equally  true  and  faithtul  to  Garfield.  All  that 
port  of  men  in  "the  Reserve"  are,  so  far  as  heard  from.  Then  the  "  Western 
Reserve"  has  heen  the  ntu>ery  of  more  free  and  independent  political  tMnUing 
and  action  thanany  other  equal  section  of  the  Union.  Political  leaders  are  no 
where  else  held  to  such  strict  accountability.  Even  Giddings,  when  he  grew 
careless,  lost  his  grip  and  was  supplanted.  The  average  '•  Western  Reserve" 
Republican  makes  his  official  repres.  ntatives  feel  that  the  term  "  public  servants" 
is  full  of  meaning.  He  "  keeps  the  run"  of  all  they  do  and  say.  If  they  are 
scandalized  he  wants  the  object  of  scandal  to  clear  his  skirts  completely.  He 
has  no  use  for  tainted  men.  They  mut-t  purge  themselves  wholly,  or  go  back  to 
private  life.  On  the  whole,  the  "Western  Reserve'' is  a  section  hy  itself,  and 
seems  to  deserve  to  be  more  generally  understood,  as  to  its  geographical  limits. 
For  this  reason  I  have  had  the  accompanying  map  prepared.  In  that  region  of 
universal  intelligence,  high  morality,  intense  political  activity  and  searching  in 
quiry,  James  A.  Garfield  was  born,  and  lias  always  h  \d  h;s  residence.  In  the 
most  critical  part  of  that  region  is  his  Congressional  district,  which  completely 
and  thorougnly  overh  .uled  all  the  scandals  that  now  survive  on  the  lips  of  the  in 
telligently  malicious  and  in  the  darkened  brains  of  the  ignorant.  His  constit 
uents  tried  him  and  pronounced  the  verdict,  "  Not  guilty/'  That  verdict  has 
been  repeated  again  and  again,  with  increasing  emphasis,  and  there  is  hardly  an 
intelligent  and  honest  boy  in  rhe  whole  "  Reserve"  \\ho  would  rot  re--ent  the 
slightest  imputation  on  the.  man  whom  the  "Reserve"  almost  idolizes  aiid  trusts 
to  the  uttermost,  James  A.  Garfield. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  69 

Garfield's  impulse  to  go  back  was  almost  irresistible.  But  on 
going  to  Mr.  Lincoln  with  the  matter,  the  President  made  a 
personal  point  with  him.  "  In  the  first  place,"  said  he,  "  the 
Republican  majority  in  Congress  is  very  small,  and  there  is 
great  doubt  whether  or  not  we  can  carry  our  measures  ;  and  in 
the  next  place,  we  are  greatly  lacking  in  men  of  military  ex 
perience  in  the  House  to  regulate  the  legislation  about  the 
army." 

Fresh  from  active  service  in  the  army,  whose  duties,  dangers, 
excitements  and  friendships  he  left  with  many  pangs  of  siiicer- 
est  and  manliest  regret,  General  Garfield  began  what  proved  to 
be  a  long  career  of  honorable,  industrious,  and  patriotic  service 
of  his  country  in  Congress,  at  the  opening  of  the  Winter 
session,  in  1863. 

In  looking  over  the  debates  and  proceedings  in  the  Congres* 
sional  Globe  for  that  important  session  we  seem  to  be  reading 
ancient  history,  so  many  men,  then  prominent  and  powerful  in 
one  or  the  other  branch  of  Congress,  have  gone  to  join  the  silent 
majority.  If  we  measure  time  by  great  national  developments, 
changes,  and  revolutions,  more  than  two  ordinary  generations 
have  passed  while  General  Garfield,  in  the  House,  had  been 
gaining  the  few  frosted  hairs  that  tell  the  story  of  constant 
work,  amid  great  and  trying  energies. 

In  order  that  younger  readers  may  bring  to  mind  the  sur 
roundings  of  the  young  and  brilliant  Major-General,  as  he  first 
undertook  the  duties  of  statesmanship  in  the  national  councils, 
it  may  be  well  to  revive,  by  the  mention  of  their  names,  some 
at  least  of  the  strong  men  who  left  their  impress  on  the  legisla 
tion  of  the  country. 

Beginning  with  the  Senate,  and  in  the  north-eastern  corner 
of  the  Republic,  Maine  was  strongly  represented  by  William 
Pitt  Fesscnden  and  Lot  M.  Morrill — the  former  preternaturally 
acute  and  dialectically  vigorous  ;  the  latter  sound,  broad,  strong, 
and  sometimes  eloquent.  The  humorist  of  the  Senate,  John  "P. 
Hale,  of  New  Hampshire,  was  somewhat  in  his  decadence. 
Vermont,  fortunate,  because  judicious  and  faithful,  in  her 


70  THE   LIFE   OF  GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

choice  of  Senators,  was  represented  by  Solomon  Foot  and  Jacob 
Collamer,  both  veterans,  but  both  vigorous  and  formidable, 
especially  on  questions  of  law  and  of  the  Constitution.  Charles 
Sumner  and  Henry  Wilson  were  great  powers,  but  in  different 
ways,  the  former  in  debate,  the  latter  in  upholding  the  army 
as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs.  Anthony 
was  even  then  Rhode  Island's  elegant  and  scholarly  represen 
tative  in  the  Senate,  as  he  has  been  ever  since.  James  Dixon 
and  La  Fayette  S.  Foster  worthily  upheld  the  influence  of  Con 
necticut.  The  ablest  Southern  Senator  was  Reverdy  Johnson,  of 
Maryland,  who  under  Mr.  Seward's  instructions  afterward 
laid  the  foundations  for  the  Treaty  of  "Washington,  and  never 
got  due  credit  therefor.  New  York  was  represen  ted  by  two 
non-speech-making  Senators — War  Governor  E.  D.  Morgan, 
who  did  more  to  sustain  the  war  in  the  Senate  than  many  more 
talkative  members,  and  the  amiable  and  learned  Judge  Ira  D. 
Harris.  Cowan  and  Buckalew,  of  Pennsylvania,  were  great 
powers  in  their  day,  but  are  forgotten.  Ohio  was  strongly 
represented  by  the  intense  and  combative  individuality  of 
"  Ben"  Wade,  and  by  John  Sherman,  already  a  veteran  in  the 
succession  of  honors  won  in  the  House  and  added  to  in  the 
Senate  ;  as  courageous  as  his  great  soldier  brother  and  almost  as 
ready  in  debate  as  Fessenden.  From  the  West  were  such 
strong  Senators  as  the  venerable  but  fearless  Henry  S.  Lane, 
of  Indiana  ;  Zachariah  Chandler,  of  Michigan  ;  Trumbull,  of 
Illinois  ;  Howe  and  Doolittle,  of  Wisconsin  ;  Ramsey,  of  Min 
nesota,  and  Grimes,  of  Iowa.  Many  of  these  men  belonged  to 
the  past,  and  did  not  know  it.  Some  were  the  predestined 
victims  of  party  divisions,  and  did  not  dream  of  their  fate. 

The  House  had  in  it,  naturally,  far  more  of  the  Present  and 
the  Future.  Its  then  most  fortunate  and  promising  member  was 
Schuyler  Colfax,  the  universally  popular  Speaker.  But  there 
were  three  young  members  who  were  destined  to  a  more  lasting 
prominence.  The  senior  of  these,  who  had  enjoyed  previous 
service  in  the  House,  was  Roscoe  Conkling,  already  recognized 
by  Congress  and  the  country  as  a  magnificent  and  convincing 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  71 

speaker.  The  other  two  of  the  triumvirate  that  was  never 
formed  were  James  G.  Blaine  and  James  A.  Garfield.  Only  a 
year  the  senior  of  Garfield,  Elaine  was  about  to  begin  a  career 
as  brilliant  as  that  of  Henry  Clay  and  the  acquisition  of  a 
popularity  unique  in  our  political  history.  But  in  this  Congress 
there  were  many  members  whose  power  was  far  greater  than 
that  of  either  of  the  trio,  who  may  yet  be  as  much  compared  as 
Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun  were  in  former  days.  In  the  first 
place  there  was  Elihu  B.  Washburne,  "  the  watch-dog  of  the 
treasury,"  the  "father  of  the  House" — courageous,  practical, 
direct,  and  aggressive.  Then  there  was  Thaddeus  Stevens,  who 
was  one  of  the  very  few  men  capable  of  driving  his  party  asso 
ciates — a  character  as  unique  as  and  far  stronger  than  John 
Randolph  ;  General  Robert  C.  Schenck,  fresh  from  the  army, 
but  a  veteran  in  Congress,  one  of  the  ablest  of  practical  states 
men  ;  ex-Governor  Boutwell,  of  Massachusetts  ;  ex-Governor 
Fenton,  of  New  York,  a  very  influential  member,  especially  on 
financial  questions  ;  Henry  Winter  Davis,  the  brilliant  orator, 
of  Maryland  ;  Wm.  B.  Allison,  since  one  of  the  soundest  and 
most  useful  of  Iowa's  Senators  ;  Henry  L.  Dawes,  who  fairly 
earned  his  promotion  to  the  Senate,  but  who  accomplished  so 
much  in  the  House  that  his  best  friends  regret  the  transfer  ; 
John  A.  Bingham,  one  of  the  most  famous  speakers  of  his 
time  ;  James  E.  English,  of  Connecticut,  who  did  valiant  and 
patriotic  service  as  a  War  Democrat  ;  George  H.  Pendleton,  now 
Senator  from  Ohio  and  a  most  accomplished  statesman,  even  in 
his  early  service  in  the  House  ;  Henry  G.  Stebbins,  who  was  to 
make  a  speech  sustaining  Mr.  Chase's  financial  policy  that  was 
unequalled  for  its  salutary  effect  on  public  opinion  ;  Samuel  J. 
Randall,  now  Speaker  ;  John  A.  Griswold,  who  was  cheated 
out  of  the  Governorship  of  New  York  by  Tammany  frauds  ; 
William  Windom,  one  of  the  silent  members  who  has  grown 
steadily  in  power  ;  James  F.  Wilson,  who  was  destined  to  de 
cline  three  successive  offers  of  Cabinet  positions  by  President 
Orant ;  Daniel  W.  Voorhees,of  Indiana,  now  Senator  ;  John  A. 
Kasson,  of  Iowa,  long  our  minister  to  Austria ;  Theodore  M. 


72  THE    LIFE    OF    GEN.   JAMES    A.   QARFIELD. 

Pomeroy,  of  New  York,  afterward  acting  Speaker  for  a  brieif 
period  ;  Wm.  R.  Morrison,  of  Illinois,  since  a  Democratic  can 
didate  for  the  Presidency  ;  Wm.  S.  Holman  and  George  W. 
Julian,  of  Indiana,  both  able  men,  and  Fernando  Wood — these 
ivcre  all  prominent  members  of  the  House.  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  House  was  a  more  trying  arena  fora  young  member  like 
Garfield  than  the  Senate  would  have  been  ;  for  the  contests  of 
the  former — unsubdued  and  unmitigated  by  "  the  courtesy  of 
the  Senate" — were  conducted  by  as  ready  and  able  a  corps  of 
debaters  as  ever  sat  in  that  body. 

In  looking  over  the  debates  of  the  opening  session  of  this 
Congress  the  subjects  of  discussion  and  the  arguments  seem  as 
remote  from  the  present  as  the  reports  of  the  House  of  Com 
mons  in  the  days  preceding  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  would 
appear  to  the  Englishman  of  the  present.  It  is  interesting  to 
see  in  what  spirit  the  representative  of  "  the  boys  at  the  front," 
as  Garneld  was  regarded  by  his  associates,  met  the  various  and 
exciting  questions  which  were  growing  out  of  the  rebellion  and 
of  the  war  for  its  suppression.  Naturally  enough,  we  find  that 
the  first  motion  made  by  General  Garfield  in  the  House,  on  the 
13th  of  January,  1864,  was  one  asking  unanimous  consent  for  a 
resolution  authorizing  the  printing  of  ten  thousand  extra  copies 
of  the  official  reports  of  his  former  chief,  Major-General  Rose- 
crans.  On  the  next  day,  for  the  first  time  he  took  part  in  the 
debates,  although  his  experience  as  State  Senator  in  Ohio  had 
been  a  sufficient  preparation  for  the  ordinary  exigencies  of  de 
bate  and  parliamentary  discussion  in  the  House.  But  neither 
at  the  beginning  nor  at  any  period  during  the  whole  of  his 
career  in  Congress  has  he  ever  shown  the  slightest  disposition 
to  create  artificial  occasions  for  the  display  of  speech-making  in 
the  Globe  and  Record  reports.  This  particular  debate,  which 
took  place  on  the  14th  of  January,  was  on  a  subject  which 
naturally  interested  a  man  who,  in  the  midst  of  active  service 
in  the  field,  had  been  revolving  the  great  problems  of  dealing 
with  the  rebellion  and  rebels.  His  antagonist  was  one  of  the 
most  formidable  and  readiest  in  the  House,  no  less  than  Mr. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  ?3 

Samuel  S.  Cox,  then  hailing  from  Ohio,  and  inclined  to  mitigate 
the  pains  and  penalties  of  rebellion  as  much  as  possible.  The 
discussion  was  on  a  joint  resolution  in  regard  to  the  seizure  and 
confiscation  of  the  property  of  rebels.  After  considerable  spar 
ring,  Mr.  Cox  asked  General  Garfield  if  he  would  break  the 
Constitution  to  aggravate  the  punishment  of  the  traitor,  or  to 
punish  the  innocent  children  of  the  rebels,  to  which  artful 
question  Garfield  replied  with  his  usual  frank  and  manly  in 
genuousness  and  sincerity.  Said  he  :  "I  would  not  break  the 
Constitution  at  all,  unless  it  should  become  necessary  to  over 
leap  its  barriers  to  save  the  Government  and  the  Union." 
u  But,"  added  he,  "  I  do  not  see  that  in  this  bill  we  do  break 
the  Constitution  ;"  and  then  said,  in  language  which  gives  the 
key-note  of  his  whole  Congressional  career  up  to  the  close  of 
the  last  session,  "•  If  the  gentleman  can  show  me  that  it  over 
leaps  the  Constitution  I  will  vote  against  it  with  him,  even 
though  every  member  of  my  party  votes  for  it  ;  that  makes  no 
difference  to  me." 

General  Garfield  was  not  in  haste  to  make  what  is  called  a 
"  set  speech."  It  required  an  actual  occasion  to  call  him  out, 
as  was  the  case  when  he  spoke  at  some  length,  on  the  31st  of 
March,  1864. 

The  practical  nature  of  his  mind,  his  constitutional  antago 
nism  to  corporate  monopolies  that  neither  serve  the  public  nor 
allow  that  service  to  be  performed  by  others,  and  his  ability  in 
the  handling  of  financial  questions,  are  well  shown  in  this 
maiden  speech.  The  very  subject  of  the  speech  precluded  the 
idea  of  a  display  of  the  peculiar  sort  of  sentimentality,  or 
patriotic  verbiage,  which  is  the  staple  of  most  speeches  made 
4'  for  Buncombe."  It  was  directed  against  the  impudence,  in 
solence,  and  inefficiency  of  a  corporation  which,  in  its  time, 
known  as  the  Camden  and  Amboy  monopoly,  was  the  occasion 
of  more  well-directed  imprecations  than  any  other  corporation 
of  its  size  that  ever  existed.  It  was  then  proposed  to  establish 
a  postal  railroad  route  across  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  which 
was  at  that  time  generally  known  as  the  "  State  of  Camden  and 


74  THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

Amboy."  About  that  time  Governor  Joel  Parker  had  issued 
an  astounding  proclamation  affirming  the  right  of  New  Jersey 
as  a  "  sovereign  State"  to  protect  and  defend  her  "  sovereign 
ty,"  which,  in  this  connection,  meant  the  sovereignty  of  Cam- 
den  and  Amboy,  as  superior  to  that  of  the  United  States,  so  far 
as  any  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to  facilitate  and 
cheapen  the  transmission  of  the  mails,  the  troops  and  the  mili 
tary  supplies  of  the  Government,  were  concerned.  In  reply  to 
Governor  Parker's  queer  application  of  the  phrase,  "  sovereign 
State,"  General  Garfield  remarked  that,  "Mr.  Coleridge  some 
where  says  that  abstract  definitions  have  done  more  harm  in 
the  world  than  plague  and  famine  and  war.  I  believe  it  !  I 
believe  that  no  man  will  ever  be  able  to  chronicle  all  the  evils 
that  have  resulted  to  this  nation  from  the  abuse  of  the  words 
'  sovereign  '  and  '  sovereignty.'  "  Then  he  went  on  specifying 
the  attributes  of  sovereignty,  and  said,  among  other  things, 
"  Sovereignty  has  the  right  to  put  ships  on  the  ocean  and  the 
high  seas.  Should  a  ship  set  sail  under  the  authority  of  New 
Jersey  :  it  would  be  seized  as  a  smuggler,  forfeited  and  sold. 
Sovereignty  has  a  flag,  but,  thank  God,  New  Jersey  has  no 
flag  ;  Ohio  has  no  flag.  No  loyal  State  fights  under  the  *  Lone 
Star,'  the  'Rattlesnake,'  or  the  'Palmetto  Tree;'  no  loyal 
State  of  this  Union  has  any  flag  but  the  banner  of  beauty  and 
glory,  the  flag  of  the  Union.  These  are  the  indispensable  ele 
ments  of  sovereignty.  New  Jersey  has  not  one  of  them."  In 
reply  to  the  remark  that  New  Jersey  was  a  loyal  State,  and  had 
sent  her  citizens  into  the  army,  he  said  :  "  They  are  not  fight 
ing  for  New  Jersey,  but  for  the  Union,  and  when  it  is  once  re 
stored,  I  don't  believe  these  men  will  fight  for  the  Camden  and 
Amboy  monopoly.  Their  hearts  have  been  enlarged,  and  there 
are  patriotic  men  of  New  Jersey,  in  the  army  and  at  home,  who 
are  groaning  under  this  tyrannical  monopoly,  and  they  come 
here  and  ask  us  to  strike  off  the  shackles  that  bind  them,  and 
I  hold  it  to  be  the  high  right  and  duty  of  this  body  to  strike  off 
their  fetters  and  let  them  go  free." 

On  the  26th  of  April,  after  the  passage  of  several  bills  mak- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAEFIELD.  75 

ing  large  ailroad  grants,  Mr.  Washburne  moved  an  adjourn 
ment,  but  General  Garfield,  in  a  very  suggestive  speech  of  three 
lines,  contributed  materially  to  the  discussion  by  remarking 
that,  "  As  there  must  be  very  little  public  land  left  after  what 
we  have  done  to-night,  I  hope  the  gentlemen  will  be  allowed  to 
go  through  with  it." 

The  great  and  almost  appalling  difficulty  in  attempting  to 
give  even  a  fair  notion  of  the  scope  and  nature  of  Gar-field's 
work  in  the  Thirty-eighth  as  in  all  the  succeeding  Congresses, 
arises  from  the  wonderful  versatility,  activity,  industry,  and 
ability  of  the  man.  The  more  I  have  attempted  to  grasp  and 
group  the  salient  features  of  his  immense  work,  the  more  the 
work  has  grown  on  me.  It  is  impossible,  within  the  limits  of 
even  half  a  dozen  volumes,  to  reproduce  with  any  fulness  his 
Congressional  achievements.  Take,  for  instance,  a  bare  cata 
logue  of  his  speeches  or  remarks  from  the  index  of  the 
Congressional  Globe  for  the  first  session  of  the  Thirty-eighth 
Congress— 1863  to  1865— viz.  :  "Deficiency  bill,"  "Bill  to 
continue  bounties,"  "Revenue  bill,"  "Confiscation,"  "Con 
scription  bill,"  "  Bill  to  revive  grade  of  Lieutenant-General, " 
"  Resolution  of  thanks  to  General  Thomas,"  "  Sale  of  surplus 
gold,"  "  Relating  to  enlistments  in  the  Southern  States," 
"  Bill  to  drop  unemployed  general  officers,"  "  New  Jersey  rail 
road  bill,"  "  Currency  bill,"  "  The  state  of  the  Union,  in  reply 
to  Mr.  Long,"  "  The  expulsion  of  Mr.  Long,"  "  A  correspond 
ence  with  the  Rebels,"  "Revenue  bill  (No.  405),"  "The  in 
quiry  in  relation  to  the  Treasury  Department,"  "The  Army 
appropriation  bill,"  "  Pennsylvania  war  claims,"  "The  bank 
ruptbill,"  "Repeal  of  fugitive  slave  law,"  "Bill  to  provide 
for  claims  for  rebellion  losses." 

In  subsequent  Congresses  the  list  of  important  subjects  and 
bills  discussed  by  Garfield  grew  much  larger.  It  will  be  seen 
that  it  is  only  practicable  to  make  anything  like  a  fair  present 
ation  of  what  he  did  and  said  by  selecting  a  few  of  the  great 
subjects  of  debate,  and  grouping  under  separate  heads  the  facts 
and  the  utterances  which  show  the  continuous  development  of 


7G  THE    LIFE    OF    GEX.   JAMES    A.   GARFIELT). 

his  thinking  and  policy.  And  as  it  is  Garficld's  peculiar  dis 
tinction  that,  although  he  came  from  the  army  into  Congress, 
and  easily  obtained  prominence  and  leadership  in  discussing 
military  questions  and  those  growing  out  of  the  war,  he  early 
began  to  give  his  best  energies  to  the  much  more  difficult  and 
less  sensational  financial  questions,  I  shall  give  the  main  part  of 
the  limited  space  allowed  for  reviewing  his  Congressional 
activities  to  the  development  of  his  views  on  the  Currency 
question  and  the  Tariff  question.  It  will  be  seen  that  for  over 
half  a  generation  he  has  been  fitting  himself  to  be  a  wise  leader 
of  the  American  people,  as  regards  two  of  the  great  and  difficult 
problems  which  are  now  of  all-commanding  importance. 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  December  11,  1865. 

We  have  begun,  as  yon  bave  seen,  and  currents  are  beginning  to  develop 
tbeir  direction  and  strength  only  feebly  as  yet.  We  appear  to  have  a  very  robust 
House,  and  indications  thus  far  ehow  it  to  be  a  very  sound  one.  The  message  is 
much  better  than  we  expected,  and  I  have  hoped  that  we  shall  be  able  to  work 
with  the  President.  He  sent  for  me  day  before  yesterday,  and  we  had  a  free  con- 
versuiion.  I  ^ave  him  the  views  of  the  earnest  men  North  as  I  understand  them, 
and  we  tried  to  look  over  the  whole  field  of  the  difficulties  before  us. 

They  are  indeed  many  and  formidable.  Sumner  and  Boutwell  and  some 
more  of  that  class  are  full  of  alarm  ;  less,  however,  than  when  they  first  came. 
Some  foolish  men  among  us  are  all  the  while  bristling  up  for  fight,  and  seem  to 
be  anxious  to  make  a  rupture  with  Johnson.  I  think  we  should  assume  that  he 
is  with  UP,  treat  him  kindly,  without  suspicion,  and  go  on  in  a  firm,  calmly  con 
sidered  conrse,  leaving  him  to  make  the  breach  with  the  party  if  any  is  made.  I 
doubt  if  he  would  do  it  under  such  circumstances.  The  caucus  resolution  of 
Thad.  Stevens  was  bad  in  some  of  its  features.  It  was  rushed  through  before 
the  caucus  was  fully  assembled,  and,  while  it  expresses  the  sentiment  of  the 
Bouse  in  its  main  propositions,  there  are  some  points  designed  to  antagonize 
with  the  President.  It  still  lies  over  in  the  Senate,  where  it  will  be  modified,  if 
it  passes  at  all. 

(Garfield  to  IB.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  11,  1868. 

This  lengthy  statement  shows  you  why  T  passed  over  a  day  without  writing 
you  the  usual  letter.  Having  passed  the  time,  I  concluded  to  wait  for  your  let 
ter  and  write  in  response. 

I  hope  we  shall  not  allow  ourselves  to  get  in  the  habit  of  omitting  or  post 
poning  these  New  Year's  letters ;  for  they  not  only  keep  us  advised  of  the 
progress,  fortune,  or  misfortune  of  each  other,  bnt  they  link  us  to  our  best 
selves,  and  help  us  measure  our  own  tendencies  better  than  we  can  do  in  almost 
any  other  way.  .  .  . 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  77 


The  longer  I  continue  in  Congress,  the  more  numerous  and  difficult  arc  the 
duties  that  press  upon  me.  These  increase  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  my 
circle  of  acquaintance,  and,  T  suppose,  increase  my  influence.  I  have  some 
times  almost  despaired  of  keeping  up  with  the  work.  The  result  is  I  get  hut 
little  time  for  careful  study  :  still,  I  am  doing  some  reading,  and  am  making 
general  advance  in  some  studies. 

I  have  accepted  an  invitation  from  the  Social  Science  Association  of  Boston 
to  prepare  a  paper  on  some  financial  theme  at  its  next  annual  meeting  in  Febru 
ary  at  Albany,  though  I  am  beginning  to  fear  I  shall  not  get  the  time  to  do  all  I 
desire  in  the  way  of  preparation.  I  must  do  something  to  keep  my  thoughts 
fresh  and  growing.  I  dread  nothing  so  much  as  falling  into  a  rut  and  feeling 
myself  becoming  a  fossil.  .  .  . 

We  are  boarding  this  winter,  and,  for  that  reason,  not  so  pleasantly  situated 
as  we  have  been  hitherto.  We  have  rooms  in  one  house  and  board  in  another. 

(Garfleld  to  A.  B.  ffimdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  January  1,  1867. 

I  am  less  satisfied  with  the  present  aspect  of  public  affairs  than  I  have  been 
for  a  long  time.  T  find  that  many  of  the  points  and  iOCtrines,  both  in  general 
politics  and  finance,  which  I  believe  in  and  desire  to  see  prevail  are  meeting  with 
more  opposition  Than  heretofore,  and  are  in  imminent  danger  of  being  overborne 
by  popular  clamor  and  political  passion. 

In  reference  to  reconstruction  I  feel  that  if  the  Southern  States  should  adopt 
the  Constitutional  Amendments  within  a  reasonable  lime,  we  are  literally  bound 
to  admit  them  to  representation  ;  if  they  reject  it,  then  I  am  in  favor  of  striking 
for  impartial  suffrage,  though  I  see  that  such  a  course  is  beset  with  grave 
dangers. 

Now  Congress  seems  determined  to  rush  forward  without  waiting  even  for 
the  action  of  the  Southern  States,  thus  giving  the  South  the  impression,  and  our 
political  enemies  at  home  a  pretext  for  saying  that  we  were  not  in  good  faith 
when  we  offered  the  Constitutional  Amendments.  .  .  . 

Really  there  seems  to  be  a  fear  on  the  part  of  many  of  our  friends  that  thej" 
may  do  some  absurdly  extravagant  thing  to  prove  their  radicalism.  I  am  trying 
to  do  two  things  :  dare  to  be  a  radical  and  not  be  a  fool,  which,  if  I  may  judge 
by  the  exhibitions  around  me,  is  a  matter  of  no  small  difficulty. 

I  wish  the  South  would  adopt  the  Constitutional  Amendments  soon  and  in 
good  temper.  Perhaps  they  will.  .  .  . 

Next,  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  the  case  I  argued  last  winter,  and  the 
papers  are  insanely  calling  for  the  abolition  of  the  court.  .  .  . 

In  reference  to  finance,  I  believe  that  the  great  remedy  for  our  ills  is  an 
early  return  to  specie  payments,  which  can  only  be  effected  by  the  contraction  of 
our  paper  currency.  There  is  a  huge  clamor  against  both  and  in  favor  of  ex 
pansion. 

You  know  my  views  on  the  tariff.  I  am  equally  assaulted  by  the  free  traders 
and  by  the  extreme  tariff  men.  There  is  passion  enough  in  the  country  to  run 
a  steam-engine  in  every  village,  and  a  spirit  of  proscription  which  keeps  pace 
with  the  passion.  My  own  course  is  chosen  and  it  is  quite  probable  it  will  throw 
me  out  of  public  life. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    CURRENCY    QUESTION. 

THERE  can  be  no  better  illustration  of  Garfield's  character, 
nor  of  his  peculiar  ability  to  deal  with  great  and  difficult  prac 
tical  questions,  than  is  afforded  by  his  speeches  on  the  various 
phases  of  the  currency  question.  In  this  respect  his  record  in 
many  important  features,  is  absolutely  unique.  He  had  no 
special  instructions  from  his  constituents  to  adopt  the  bold  line 
of  policy  which  he  assumed  so  early  in  his  Congressional  career, 
while  there  were  many  members  whose  constituencies  held  such 
decided  opinions,  on  one  side  or  the  other  of  the  financial 
issues,  that  their  election  to  Congress  was  a  sufficient  instruc 
tion  and  guide,  for  they  were  merely  the  mouthpieces  of  their 
constituents.  But  General  Garfield,  who  rapidly  came  to  be 
regarded  as  the  representative,  not  merely  of  his  own  district, 
but  of  his  State,  was  not  elected  originally  on  any  such  issue, 
and,  as  its  proportions  developed  growing  importance  and  gave 
rise  to  more  exciting  agitations,  his  own  State  was.  at  first,  in 
clined  to  yield  to  the  specious  doctrines  that,  at  one  time  or 
another,  have  prevailed  in  every  civilized  country.  He  could 
easily  have  evaded  this  issue,  at  the  outset  at  least,  if  it  had 
been  in  his  nature  to  dodge  any  responsibility  or  duty.  Instead 
of  this,  with  a  perfect  intuition  of  the  surpassing  magnitude  of 
the  currency  question,  he  began  to  prepare  himself  for  its  intel 
ligent  comprehension  and  discussion,  by  a  course  of  study  and 
investigation  which  very  few  of  our  statesmen  have  given  to  it. 
He  exhausted  all  the  histories  of  the  various  experiments  of 
dealing  with  public  debts  and  of  furnishing  paper  currency 
that  had  been  made  in  this  country  ;  he  followed  the  investiga 
tion  back  into  English  history,  studying  all  the  text-books  ;  he 
mastered  the  French  language,  so  as  to  be  able  to  read  the  un- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GA11FIELD.  79 

translated    French    treatises   on    political    economy   and    the 
currency,  and  sought  in  all  directions,  from  the  experience  of 
all  countries,  whatever  light  or  information  could  aid  him  in 
dealing  with  the  financial  situation  in  which  we  were  left  at  the 
close  of  the  war.     Thus  thoroughly  grounded  in  knowledge, 
armed  with  authorities  in  defence  of  sound  principles  and  prac 
tices,  and  inspired  with  an  abiding  horror  of  the  countless  evils 
brought  on  all  classes  of  society  by  false  systems  of  finance,  he 
"Kas  ready  to  take  the  side  of  the  currency  question  which,  with 
Mich  knowledge  and  such    equipment,   a  man    whose"  whole 
-lature  revolted  at  time-serving  and  cowardly  expedients,  and 
from  dishonesty  and  injustice  in  every  form,  would  naturally 
take.      Through  whatever  mutations  of  public  sentiment  on 
these  questions  convulsed  the  people  of  his  State  ;  through  the 
darkest  eras  in  our  financial  history  ;  under  whatever  pressure, 
and  amid  whatever  suggestions  of    immediate    party  expedi 
ency,  Garfield  maintained  a  course  so  ingenuous,  courageous  and 
consistent  in  principle,  that  his  most  malign  enemy  might  >e 
safely  challenged  to  explore  his  record  at  every  point. 

The  speech  which  he  made  on  the  16th  of  March,  1866,  on 
the  public  debt  and  specie  payments,  covers  substantially  the 
whole  ground  of  the  great  argument  that  was  only  concluded — 
if  it  is  concluded — by  the  grand  success  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  in  safely  and  easily  accomplishing  specie  payments, 
after  a  protracted  and  ceaseless  struggle,  in  which  his  sagacity, 
his  tact,  and  his  persistence  have  earned  for  him  the  right  to  be 
named  and  honored  alongside  of  Washington's  immortal 
Secretary,  Alexander  Hamilton.  The  speech  was  not  a  long 
one,  but  it  was  one  that  reached  down  to  the  foundations  of  a 
wise  and  honest  system  of  finance.  It  was  a  good  beginning 
for  the  series  of  arguments  with  which,  from  time  to  time,  in 
Congress  and  out  of  Congress,  General  Garfield  was  always 
ready  to  meet  every  species,  phase,  and  form  of  false  systems  of 
finance.  The  time  of  the  delivery  of  this  speech  is  important 
to  be  considered.  It  was  long  before  the  Republican  Party  had 
been  brought— largely  through  the  heroic  firmness  of  two  sue- 


80  THE    LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GAKFIELD. 

cessivc  Presidents — Grant  and  Hayes — into  substantial  unity  on 
the  main  features  of  the  currency  question.  It  is  easy  enough 
now  for  Republican  statesmen  to  advocate  what  Garfield  so 
courageously  advocated  fourteen  years  ago  in  time,  and  a  gene 
ration  ago  in  events.  His  speech  was  a  strong  plea  for  confer 
ring  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  the  advantage  of  that 
large  discretion  in  funding  the  debt  which  subsequent  experi 
ence  has  proved  to  be  absolutely  essential  to  the  restoration  of 
a  sound  financial  system.  It  was,  also,  not  only  a  courageous 
demand  for  an  immediate  adoption  of  a  settled  policy  of  return 
to  specie  payments,  but  a  bold  arraignment  of  the  folly  of  con 
tinuing  the  stimulus  of  inflation,  and  a  bold  argument  for  con 
tracting  an  irredeemable  currency,  so  as  to  prepare  the  way  for 
practical  resumption.  It  was  a  plain,  business-like,  earnest 
speech,  based  on  the  highest  financial  authorities,  illustrated  by 
the  financial  disorders  of  the  country,  and  abounding  in  epi 
grammatic  exposure  of  the  fallacies  that  were  destined  to  yield 
a  terrible  fruitage  of  evil,  because  there  were  not  more  Garfields 
in  Congress. 

The  House  was  not  ready  to  support  the  judicious  bill  which 
Garfield  advocated,  and  it  was  lost  by  a  small  majority,  when 
lie  changed  his  vote  so  as  to  enable  him  to  move  to  reconsider, 
which  motion  was  sustained  by  the  House,  on  the  19th,  by 
a  vote  of  81  to  67,  but  before  moving  the  previous  question  he 
made  a  few  brief  remarks,  in  which  he  took  and  returned  the 
shots  of  such  experienced  and  able  debaters  as  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  Judge  Kelley  and  others,  and  strenuously  maintained 
that  the  honest  and  heroic  policy  was  the  only  safe,  and  would 
be  the  only  successful,  one  to  pursue.  In  reply  to  Judge 
Kelley,  Garfield  said,  and  he  knew  what  he  was  saying  : 
"  There  is  no  leading  financier,  no  statesman  now  living,  or  one 
who  has  lived  within  the  last  half  century,  in  whose  opinions 
the  gentleman  can  find  any  support.  They  all  declare,  as  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  declares,  that  the  only  honest  basis  of 
value  is  a  currency  redeemable  in  specie  at  the  will  of  the 
holder.  I  am  an  advocate  of  paper  money,  but  that  paper 


THE  LIFE   OF  GEIT.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  81 

money  must  represent  what  it  professes  en  its  face.  I  do  not 
wish  to  hold  in  my  hands  the  printed  lies  of  the  Government  ; 
I  want  its  promise  to  pay,  signed  by  the  high  officers  of  the 
Government,  sacredly  kept  in  the  exact  meaning  of  the  words 
of  the  promise.  Let  us  not  continue  to  practise  this  conjuror's 
art,  by  which  sixty  cents  shall  discharge  a  debt  of  one  hundred 
•cents.  I  do  not  want  industry  to  be  everywhere  thus  crippled 
and  wounded,  and  its  wounds  plastered  over  with  legally- 
authorized  lies." 

In  concluding,  he  spoke  with  impassioned  and  prophetic 
earnestness,  and  what  he  said  may  well  go  into  his  record,  for 
the  circumstances  under  which,  and  the  time  in  which,  he 
spoke,  are  essential  elements  in  considering  the  character  and 
statesmanship  of  the  speaker.  Said  he  : 

"We  leave  it  to  the  House  to  decide  which  alternative  it  will 
choose.  Choose  the  one,  and  you  float  away  into  an  unknown 
sea  of  paper  money  that  shall  know  no  decrease  until  you  take 
just  such  a  measure  as  is  now  proposed  to  bring  us  back  to 
solid  values.  Delay  the  measure,  and  it  will  cost  the  country 
dear.  Adopt  it  now,  and  with  a  little  depression  in  business 
and  a  little  stringency  in  the  money  market,  the  worst  will  be 
over,  and  we  shall  have  reached  the  solid  earth.  Sooner  or 
later  such  a  measure  must  be  adopted.  Go  on  as  you  are  now 
going  on,  and  a  financial  crisis  worse  than  that  of  1837  will 
bring  us  to  the  bottom.  I  for  one  am  not  willing  that  my  name 
shall  be  linked  to  the  fate  of  a  paper  currency.  I  believe  that 
any  party  which  commits  itself  to  paper  money  will  go  down 
amid  the  general  disaster,  covered  with  the  curses  of  a  ruined 
people. 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  I  remember  that  on  the  monument  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  where  her  glories  were  recited  and  her  honors 
summed  up,  among  the  last  and  the  highest,  recorded  as  the 
climax  of  her  honors,  was  this — that  she  had  restored  the  money 
of  her  kingdom  to  its  just  value.  And  when  this  House  shall 
have  done  its  work,  when  it  shall  have  brought  back  values  to 
their  proper  standard,  it  will  deserve  a  monument." 

A  careful  examination  of  Garfield's  entire  record  on  the 
financial  issues,  and  of  the  speeches  made  thereon  both  in  and 
out  of  Congress,  will  be  found  interesting  to  that  large  class  of 


82  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GAUFIELD. 

practical  business  men  who  believe  that  it  is  of  the  utmost  im 
portance  to  have  in  the  White  House  for  the  next  four  years  an 
Executive  as  sound  and  judicious  and  immovable  by  clamors  as 
we  have  had  there  for  nearly  four  years. 

Garfield  did  not  wait  for  the  development  of  public  opinion, 
or  even  Republican  opinion,  in  favor  of  the  financial  principles 
which  have  been  found  to  be  wise  and  essential,  by  the  experi 
ence  of  all  civilized  countries.  As  we  have  seen,  he  took  early 
ground  on  these  questions,  a  ground  broad  enough  on  which  to 
meet  all  the  changing  phases  of  discussion  which  have  agitated 
the  country.  Faithful,  conscientious,  well-directed  study  had 
fortified  his  vigorous  mind  for  the  long  struggle  in  which  he 
was  to  take  so  conspicuous  a  part.  The  breadth  -of  his  views, 
his  courageous  enunciation  of  them,  and  his  clear  perception  of 
the  situation,  are  illustrated  in  more  speeches  than  can  even  be 
referred  to  within  the  limits  of  this  volume  ;  but  a  cursory  view 
of  a  few  of  these  speeches  will  sufficiently  develop  the  results 
of  Garfield's  stalwart  thinking  on  these  subjects.  In  a  speech 
which  he  delivered  in  the  House  on  the  15th  of  May,  1868,  he 
showed,  to  begin  with,  his  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  war 
times  had  gone,  and  that  the  more  difficult  problems  of  finance 
were  looming  up  as  the  tests  of  the  wisdom  and  patriotism  of 
Congress  and  the  people.  No  man  realized  these  difficulties 
earlier  or  more  thoroughly  than  he  did,  or  how  they  should  be 
met.  Said  he,  at  the  outset  of  this  speech  : 

"  All  the  questions  which  spring  out  of  the  public  debt,  such 
as  loans,  bonds,  tariffs,  internal  taxation,  banking  and  currency, 
present  greater  difficulties  than  usually  come  within  the  scope 
of  American  politics.  They  cannot  be  settled  by  force  of  num 
bers  nor  carried  by  assault,  as  an  army  storms  the  works  of  an 
enemy.  Patient  examination  of  facts,  careful  study  of  princi 
ples  which  do  not  always  appear  on  the  surface,  and  which  in 
volve  the  most  difficult  problems  of  political  economy,  are  the 
weapons  of  this  warfare.  No  sentiment  of  national  pride 
should  make  us  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  we  have  less  experi 
ence  in  this  direction  than  any  other  civilized  nation.  If  this 
fact  is  not  creditable  to  our  intellectual  reputation,  it  at  least 
affords  a  proof  that  our  people  have  not  hitherto  been  crushed 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEIST.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  83 

under  the  burdens  of  taxation.  We  must  consent  to  be  instruct 
ed  by  the  experience  of  other  nations,  and  be  willing  to 
approach  these  questions,  not  with  the  dogmatism  of  teachers, 
but  as  seekers  after  truth. ' ' 

Whereupon  he  went  into  a  review  of  the  financial  troubles 
that  were  causing  such  distress  in  Great  Britain  and  throughout 
pretty  much  the  whole  Continent  of  Europe,  as  well  as  in  the 
United  States.  These  difficulties  he  did  not  attribute  to  chance  ; 
that  was  not  the  nature  or  training  of  his  naturally  inductive 
and  logical  mind  He  showed  why  and  how  the  industrial 
revolution  caused  by  the  return  of  two  million  of  able-bodied 
men,  discharged  from  the  Army  and  Navy  to  active  production, 
and  the  enormous  inflation  of  currency  and  prices,  had  produced 
widespread  distress,  discontent  and  disaster.  As  usual,  in  dis 
cussing  such  questions,  he  availed  himself  of  thorough  previous 
preparation,  and  made  a  startling  exhibit  from  a  table  prepared 
at  his  request,  a  year  before,  by  Mr.  Edward  Young,  io  the  rev 
enue  service,  exhibiting  a  comparison  of  .wholesale  prices  at  New 
York  in  December,  1865,  and  December  1866.  The  average 
decline  in  this  period  in  the  prices  of  all  commodities  was  at 
least  10  per  cent,  and  the  distress  which  followed  was  inevi 
table.  He  then  proceeded  to  illustrate  the  functions  of  cur 
rency,  and  the  unavoidable  dangers  and  disturbances  caused  by 
an  irredeemable  paper  currency,  showed  the  relation  of  currency 
to  prices,  and  demonstrated  that  an  inflated  currency  was  the 
sorest  sort  of  taxation,  whose  chief  burden  fell  on  laboring 
men.  He  went  over  the  history  of  every  panic  in  the  country, 
and  showed  the  direct  relation  between  the  increase  or  decrease 
of  the  currency  and  the  financial  condition  of  the  country.  His 
illustrations  of  the  nature  and  effect  of  the  currency  not  regu 
lated  in  its  volume  by  supply  and  demand,  and  by  constant 
convertibility  into  coin,  were  such  as  could  be  easily  understood 
l>y  any  ordinary  laborer.  Said  he:  "  The  dollar  is  the  gauge 
that  measures  every  blow  of  the  axe,  every  swing  of  the  scythe, 
every  stroke  of  the  hammer,  every  fagot  that  blazes  on  the 
poor  man's  hearth,  every  fabric  that  clothes  his  children,  every 


84  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GAKFIELD. 

mouthful  that  feeds  their  hunger.  The  word  dollar  is  a  sub 
stantive  word,  the  fundamental  condition  of  every  contract,  of 
every  sale,  of  every  payment,  whether  fiom  the'national  treasury 
or  from  the  stand  of  the  apple-woman  in  the  street.  Now, 
what  is  our  situation  ?  There  has  been  no  day  since  the  25th 
of  February,  1862,  when  any  man  could  tell  what  would  be  the 
value  of  our  legal  currency  dollar  the  next  month  or  the  next 
clay.  Since  that  day  we  have  substituted  for  a  dollar  the 
printed  promise  of  the  Government  to  pay  a  dollar  ;  that 
promise  we  have  broken.  We  have  suspended  payment,  and 
have,  by  law,  compelled  the  citizen  to  receive  dishonored  paper 
instead  of  money." 

He  did  not  attempt  to  disguise  or  mitigate  the  stern  fact  that 
the  transition  from  irredeemable  paper  to  a  currency  worth  its 
face  in  coin  would  be  very  trying  and  hard  to  bear.  Consider 
the  fact  that  at  the  time  this  speech  was  delivered  the  most 
promising  and  popular  Democratic  statesman  from  Ohio,  and 
who  had  been  the  candidate  of  his  party  for  the  office  of  Vice- 
President,  Mr.  George  H.  Pendleton,  was  moving  his  own 
party,  and  thousands  of  discontented  Republicans  who  wanted 
Congress  to  "make  money  easy,"  with  his  seductive  proposi 
tion  to  cancel  with  greenbacks  $1,500,000,000  of  five -twenty 
bonds.  This  was  the  measure,  under  the  stress  of  whose  prob 
able  popularity  Mr.  Pendleton  was  expecting  the  Presidential 
nomination  by  his  party.  At  this  very  time  Garfield  had  the 
courage,  in  his  place  in  Congress,  to  utter  these  wholesome 
words,  which  had  nothing  in  them  of  immediate  promise  of 
relief  to  the  business  troubles  of  his  constituents.  Said  he  : 

"  The  simple  fact  in  the  case  is  that  Congress  went  resolutely 
and  almost  unanimously  forward  in  the  policy  of  gradual  re 
sumption  of  specie  payments  and  a  return  to  the  old  standard 
of  values,  until  the  pressure  of  falling  prices  and  hard  times 
began  to  be  felt  ;  and  now  many  are  shrinking  from  the  good 
work  they  have  undertaken,  are  turning  back  from  the  path 
they  so  worthily  resolved  to  pursue,  and  are  asking  Congress  to 
plunge  the  nation  deeper  than  ever  into  the  abyss  from  which 
it  has  been  struggling  so  earnestly  to  escape.  Did  any  reflect- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  85 

ing  man  suppose  it  possible  for  the  country  to  return  from  the 
high  prices,  the  enormous  expansion  of  business,  debt,  and 
speculation  occasioned  by  the  war,  without  much  depression 
and  temporary  distress  ?  The  wit  of  man  has  never  devised  a 
method  by  which  the  vast  commercial  and  industrial  interests 
of  a  nr.tion  can  suffer  the  change  from  peace  to  war,  and  from 
war  back  to  peace,  without  hardship  and  loss.  The  homely  old 
maxim,  '  What  goes  up  must  come  down,'  applies  to  our  situa 
tion  with  peculiar  force.  The  '  coming  down  '  is  inevitable. 
Congress  can  only  break  the  fall  and  mitigate  its  evils  by  ad 
justing  the  taxation,  the  expenditures,  and  the  currency  of  the 
country,  to  the  changed  conditions  of  affairs.  This  it  is  our 
duty  to  do  with  a  firm  and  steady  hand." 

Going  through  the  successive  experiments  of  the  country  in 
paper  money,  and  censuring  strongly  the  error  of  Congress  in 
1866  in  preventing  a  further  contraction  of  the  currency,  he 
then  submitted  his  own  plan  for  restoring  the  paper  dollar  as 
the  honest  representative  of  its  face  value.  His  process  was  a 
very  simple  one  :  it  was  to  direct  and  authorize  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  on  and  after  the  first  day  of  December,  1868, 
to  pay  gold  coin  for  any  legal-tender  note  that  might  be  pre 
sented  at  the  office  of  the  Assistant  Treasurer  in  New  York,  at 
the  rate  of  one  dollar  in  gold  for  $1.30  in  legal-tender  notes. 
On  and  after  the  first  day  of  January,  1869,  the  rate  should  be 
one  dollar  in  gold  for  $1.29  in  legal-tender  notes,  and  during 
each  successive  month  the  amount  of  legal-tender  notes  required 
for  exchange  for  one  dollar  in  gold  should  be  one  cent  less  than 
was  required  for  the  preceding  month,  until  the  exchange  should 
be  one  dollar  in  gold  for  one  dollar  in  legal-tender  notes — dollar 
for  dollar.  But  there  was  a  proviso  that  nothing  in  the  act 
should  be  so  construed  as  to  authorize  the  retirement  or  cancel 
lation  of  any  legal-tender  notes  of  the  United  States.  There 
were  one  hundred  million  dollars  of  gold  in  the  Treasury  at^, 
that  time,  which  would  have  been  sufficient,  with  the  half  mil- 
lion  a  day  received  from  customs,  to  carry  out  the  provisions  oi 
this  bill.  This  was  not  in  the  nature  of  a  new  experiment,  foi 
it  was  tried  in  England  under  an  act  passed,  in  1819,  under  th& 
leadership  of  Robert  Peel,  which  reached  resumption  in  tin 


86  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

same  gradual  manner.  The  English  act  at  once  gave  a  fixed 
value  to  paper  money,  and  business  so  readily  adjusted  itself  in 
anticipation,  that  specie  payments  were  resumed  two  years  be 
fore  the  time  fixed  by  the  law. 

Garfield,  with  his  sublime  confidence  in  the  intelligence,  integ 
rity  and  courage  of  the  American  people,  believed  that  if  Con 
gress  would  do  something  definite  to  restore  an  honest  currency, 
the  people  would  soon  adjust  themselves  to  the  evils  of  the 
transition,  and  reminded  Congress  that  after  the  first  defeat  at 
Bull  Run  many  officers  of  the  Government  thought  it  not  safe 
to  let  the  people  know  at  once  the  whole  extent  of  the  disaster, 
but  that  the  news  should  be  broken  gently,  that  the  nation 
might  be  better  able  to  bear  it ;  but  "  long  before  the  close  of 
the  war  it  was  found  that  the  Cabinet  and  Congress  and  all 
the  officers  of  the  United  States  needed  for  themselves  to  draw 
hope  and  courage  from  the  great  heart  of  the  people.  It  was 
only  necessary  for  the  nation  to  know  the  extent  of  the  danger, 
the  depth  of  the  need,  and  its  courage,  faith,  and  endurance 
were  always  equal  to  the  necessity." 

On  the  15th  of  July,  following  the  speech  on  the  currency, 
Garfield  made  a  reply  to  General  Butler  and  Mr.  Frederick  A. 
Pike,  who  had  been  ventilating  some  rather  specious  fallacies 
with  regard  to  the  taxation  of  United  States  bonds,  a  theme 
which,  from  its  very  nature,  has  been  the  favorite  subject  of 
demagogues  who  pay  the  American  people  the  poor  compliment 
of  believing  that  they  can  be  induced  to  sacrifice  the  national 
credit,  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  credit  and  prosperity,  and 
the  common  interest  of  the  people  in  order  to  strike,  or  to  ap 
pear  to  strike,  at  the  class  known  as  the  "  bloated  bondhold 
ers,"  which  designation  is  as  false  and  deceptive  as  the  argu 
ments  that  have  been  called  out  by  a  supposed  prejudice.  Gar- 
field  first  riddled  the  argument  made  by  Mr.  Pike  on  the  basis 
of  misconceptions  and  perversions  of  English  legislation  on  the 
subject,  and,  of  course,  was  ready  with  the  facts  and  authori 
ties  that  rendered  his  exposure  scathing  and  effectual.  There 
was  a  running  debate  between  Mr.  Pike  and  Mr.  Butler,  on  one 


THE  LIFE  OF  GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  87 

side,  and  Garfield,  on  the  other,  in  which  Garfield  met  his  an 
tagonists  at  every  point,  showed  superior  knowledge  of  facts, 
dates,  statutes  and  events,  aad  strengthened  his  argument  by 
an  exposure  of  the  fallacies  of  his  opponents,  and  by  showing 
his  own  superior  mastery  of  the  whole  subject.  This  was  a  de 
bate  in  which  mere  cramming  on  an  unprepared  mind,  however 
rigorous  and  ready,  would  have  been  of  no  avail.  It  required 
thorough,  extensive  and  well-digested  knowledge  and  thinking, 
as  the  condition  of  success  in  such  an  encounter.  After  resist 
ing  successfuly  every  onset  of  his  antagonists,  he  showed  the 
immediate  evil  effects  of  taxing  the  bonds  in  a  merely  financial 
point  of  view,  illustrating  it  by  the  fact,  which  was  peculiarly 
effective  in  Butler's  case,  that  while  the  Massachusetts  five  per 
cent  gold  bonds  were  quoted  in  London  at  89  and  90,  the  ten- 
forty  gold-bearing  5  per  cent  United  States  bonds  were  at  68£, 
merely  because  Massachusetts  had  not  only  kept  faith  through  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  war,  but  had  not  sought  technical 
grounds  of  escape  from  her  obligations.  But  rising  from  the  im 
mediately  pecuniary  point  of  view,  he  honored  his  party  by  ex 
pressing  his  pride  in  it,  because,  "  having  saved  the  life  of  the 
nation  by  its  policy,  it  now  declares  its  unalterable  purpose  to 
save  by  its  truth  and  devotion,  what  is  still  more  precious,  the 
faith  and  honor  of  the  nation."  He  quoted  the  declaration 
made  by  the  old  English  gentleman  in  the  days  of  Charles 
II.,  as  one  that  does  honor  to  human  nature.  "  He  said  he 
was  willing  at  any  time  to  give  his  life  for  the  good  of  his 
country,  but  he  would  not  do  a  mean  thing  to  save  his  country 
from  ruin."  "  So  sir,"  said  Garfield,  "  ought  a  citizen  to  feel 
in  regard  to  our  financial  affairs.  The  people  of  the  United 
States  can  afford  to  make  any  sacrifice  for  their  country,  and 
the  history  of  the  last  war  is  proof  of  their  willingness  ;  but  the 
humblest  citizen  cannot  afford  to  do  a  mean  or  a  dishonorable 
thing,  to  save  even  this  glorious  Republic. ' ' 

Two  of  Garfield 's  speeches  on  the  currency  question  are  suffi 
ciently  representative  of  his  latest  views  to  afford  the  material 


88  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAEFIELD. 

for  illustrating  the  continuous  and  consistent  workings  of  his 
mind  on  this  vitally  important  subject. 

The  first  of  these  speeches  was  delivered  in  the  House  on  the 
16th  of  November,  1877,  on  the  House  bill  for  the  repeal  of  the 
third  section  of  the  act  entitled  "  An  Act  for  the  Resumption 
of  Specie  Payments."  At  the  very  outset  of  this,  he  reiterated 
the  assertion  he  had  made  frequently  before,  that  the  contest 
for  a  sound  currency  was  not  a  new  one,  nor  the  arguments  for 
a  vicious  currency  peculiar  American  inventions.  Said  he  : 
"  Hardly  a  proposition  has  been  heard  on  either  side  which  was 
not  made  one  hundred  and  eighty  years  ago  in  England,  and 
almost  a  hundred  years  ago  in  the  United  States."  With  his 
usual  intellectual  habit  of  combating  partial  truths  or  passing 
errors  of  popular  judgment  by  larger  inductions  from  facts  and 
from  history,  he  urged  that  it  "  was  only  when  long  spaces  of 
time  are  considered  that  we  find  at  last  that  level  of  public 
opinion  which  we  call  the  general  judgment  of  mankind  ;  and 
from  the  turbulent  ebb  and  flow  of  the  public  opinion  of  to-day 
lie  appealed  to  that  settled  judgment  of  mankind  on  the  sub 
ject-matter  of  debate."  Going  back  to  the  period  of  universal 
prosperity  which  prevailed  just  before  the  war,  he  recalled  the 
fact  that : 

"  If  any  one  thing  was  settled  above  all  other  questions  of 
financial  policy  in  the  American  mind  at  that  time,  it  was  this  : 
that  the  only  sound,  safe,  trustworthy  standard  of  value  was 
coin  of  standard  weight  and  fineness  or  a  paper  currency  con 
vertible  into  coin  at  the  will  of  the  holder.  That  was  and  had 
been  for  several  generations  the  almost  unanimous  opinion  of 
the  American  people.  It  was  true  there  was  here  and  there  a 
theorist  dreaming  of  the  philosopher's  stone,  dreaming  of  a  time 
when  paper  money,  which  he  worshipped  as  a  kind  of  fetich, 
would  be  crowned  as  a  god,  but  those  dreamers  were  so  few  in 
number  that  they  made  no  ripple  on  the  current  of  public 
Thought,  and  their  theories  formed  no  part  of  public  opinion. 
The  opinion  of  1860  to  1861  was  the  aggregated  result  of  the 
opinions  of  all  the  foremost  Americans  who  have  left  their 
record  upon  this  subject. 

"  No  man,"  said  he,  "  ever  sat  in  the  seat  of  Washington  as 
President  of  the  United  States  who  has  left  on  record  any  word 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  89 

that  favors  inconvertible  paper  money  as  a  safe  standard  of 
value.  Every  President  who  has  left  a  record  on  the  subject 
has  spoken  without  qualification  in  favor  of  the  doctrine  I  have 
announced.  No  man  ever  sat  in  the  chair  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  wThp,  if  he  has  spoken  at  all 
on  the  subject,  has  not  left  on  record  an  opinion  equally  strong, 
from  Hamilton  down  to  the  days  of  the  distinguished  father  of 
my  colleague  [Mr.  Ewing],  and  to  the  present  moment.  The 
general  judgment  of  all  men  who  deserve  to  be  called  the  lead 
ers  of  American  thought,  ought  to  be  considered  worth  some 
thing  in  an  American  House  of  Representatives  on  the  discus 
sion,  of  a  great  topic  like  this." 

Then  he  briefly  developed  the  reasons  for  the  great  convul 
sions  of  public  opinion  on  this  before-settled  subject,  which 
were  occasioned  by  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  war,  and 
reminded  the  House  that 

"  Only  twelve  years  have  passed-— (for  as  late  as  1865  this 
House,  with  but  six  dissenting  votes,  resolved  again  to  stand 
by  the  old  ways  and  bring  the  country  to  sound  money) — only 
twelve  years  have  passed,  and  what  do  wre  find  ?  We  find  a 
group  of  theorists  and  doctrinaires  who  look  upon  the  wisdom 
of  the  fathers  as  foolishness.  We  find  some  who  advocate  what 
they  call  *  absolute  money  '  ;  w^ho  declare  that  a  piece  of  paper 
stamped  a  '  dollar  '  is  a  dollar  ;  that  gold  and  silver  are  a  part 
of  the  barbarism  of  the  past,  which  ought  to  be  forever  aban 
doned.  We  hear  them  declaring  that  resumption  is  a  delusion 
and  a  snare.  We  hear  them  declaring  that  the  eras  of  pros 
perity  are  the  eras  of  paper  money.  They  point  us  to  all  times 
of  inflation  as  periods  of  blessing  to  the  people  and  prosperity 
to  business  ;  and  they  ask  us  no  more  to  vex  their  ears  with  any 
allusion  to  the  old  standard,  the  money  of  the  Constitution. 
Let  the  wild  swarm  of  financial  literature  that  has  sprung  into 
life  within  the  last  twelve  years  witness  how  widely  and  how 
far  we  have  drifted.  We  have  lost  our  old  moorings,  have 
thrown  overboard  our  old  compass  ;  we  sail  by  alien  stars, 
leaking  not  for  the  haven,  but  are  afloat  on  a  harborless  sea." 

In  combating  the  financial  fallacies  of  Mr.  Buckner,  Mr.  Har 
rison,  Judge  Kelley  and  others,  he  showed  his  thorough  famil 
iarity  with  the  financial  experiments  in  the  way  of  resumption 
in  France,  England,  and  Germany,  and  defended  as  a  blessing 


90  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

the  resumption  act  of  1819  in  England,  shoeing  that  the  dis 
tresses  suffered  by  that  country  from  1821  to  1826  did  not  arise 
from  the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  but  from  other  causes, 
the  two  especial  causes  being  the  corn  laws  and  over  specula 
tion.  Then  he  riddled  the  fallacies  of  those  who  assume  that 
legislation  in  favor  of  the  immediate  interests  of  the  debtor 
class  is  for  the  benefit  of  laboring  men.  His  argument  on  this 
theme  is  one  so  well  adapted  to  popularize  sound  doctrine  of 
finance  that  it  is  entitled  to  be  quoted  from  at  some  length,  to 
wit : 

"  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  poor  man,  the  laboring  man,  can 
not  get  heavily  in  debt.  He  has  not  the  security  to  offer.  Men 
lend  their  money  on  security  ;  and,  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
case,  poor  men  can  borrow  but  little.  What,  then,  do  poor 
men  do  with  their  small  earnings  ?  When  a  man  has  earned, 
out  of  his  hard  work,  a  hundred  dollars  more  than  he  needs  for 
current  expenses,  he  reasons  thus  :  '  I  cannot  go  into  business 
with  a  hundred  dollars  ;  I  cannot  embark  in  trade  ;  but,  as  I 
work,  I  want  my  money  to  work.'  And  so  he  puts  his  small 
gains  where  they  will  earn  something.  He  lends  his  money  to 
a  wealthier  neighbor,  or  puts  it  into  a  savings  bank.  There 
were  in  the  United  States,  on  the  first  of  November,  187G, 
forty-four  hundred  and  seventy-five  savings  banks  and  private 
banks  of  deposit  ;  and  their  deposits  amounted  to  $1,377,- 
000,000,  almost  three  fourths  the  amount  of  our  national  debt. 
Over  two  and  a  half  millions  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States 
were  depositors.  In  some  States  the  depasits  did  not  average 
more  than  $250  each.  The  great  mass  of  the  depositors  are 
men  and  W7omen  of  small  means — laborers,  widows,  and 
orphans.  They  are  the  lenders  of  this  enormous  aggregate. 
The  savings  banks,  as  their  agents,  lend  it — to  whom  ?  Not  to 
the  laboring  poor,  but  to  the  business  men  who  wish  to  enlarge 
their  business  beyond  their  capital.  Speculators  sometimes 
borrow  it.  But  in  the  main,  well-to-do  business  men  borrow 
these  hoardings.  Thus  the  poor  lend  to  the  rich. 

u  Gentlemen  assail  the  bondholders  of  the  country  as  the  rich 
men  who  oppress  the  poor.  Do  they  know  how  vast  an  amount 
of  the  public  securities  are  held  by  the  poor  people  ?  I  took 
occasion,  a  few  years  since,  to  ask  the  officers  of  a  bank  in  one 
of  the  counties  of  my  district,  a  rural  .district,  to  show  me  the 
number  of  holders  and  amounts  held  of  United  States  bonds  on 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD.  91 

•which  they  collected  the  interest.  The  total  amount  was 
$416,000.  And  how  many  people  held  them  ?  One  hundred 
and  ninety-six.  Of  these/ just  eight  men  held  from  $15,000  to 
$20,000  each  ;  the  other  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  ranged 
from  $50  up  to  $2500.  I  found  in  that  list,  fifteen  orphan 
children  and  sixty  widows,  who  had  a  little  left  them  from  their 
fathers'  or  husbands'  estates,  and  had  made  the  nation  their 
guardian.  And  I  found  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  laborers, 
mechanics,  ministers,  men  of  slender  means,  who  had  saved 
their  earnings  and  put  them  in  the  hands  of  the  United  States, 
that  they  might  be  safe.  And  they  were  the  *  bloated  bond 
holders,  '  against  whom  so  much  eloquence  is  fulminated  in  this 
House. 

"  There  is  another  way  in  which  poor  men  dispose  of  their 
money.  A  man  says,  I  can  keep  my  wife  and  babies  from 
starving  while  I  live  and  have  my  health  ;  but  if  I  die  they  may 
be  compelled  to  go  over  the  hill  to  the  poor-house  ;  and, 
agonized  by  that  thought,  he  saves  of  his  hard  earnings  enough 
to  take  out  and  keep  alive  a  small  life-insurance  policy,  so  that, 
if  he  dies,  there  may  be  something  left,  provided  the  insurance 
company  to  which  he  intrusts  his  money  is  honest  enough  to 
keep  its  pledges.  And  how  many  men  do  you  think  have  done 
that  in  the  United  States  ?  I  do  not  know  the  number  for  the 
whole  country  ;  but  I  do  know  this,  that  from  a  late  report  of 
the  insurance  commissioners  of  the  State  of  New  York,  it 
appears  that  the  companies  doing  business  in  that  State  had 
774,625  policies  in  force,  and  the  face  value  of  these  policies 
was  $1,922,000,000.  I  find,  by  looking  over  the  returns,  that 
in  my  State  there  are  55,000  policies  outstanding  ;  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  74,000  ;  in  Maine  17,000  ;  in  Maryland,  25,000,  and  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  160,000.  There  are,  of  course,  some 
rich  men  insured  in  these  companies  ;  but  the  majority  are  poor 
people  ;  for  the  policies  do  not  average  more  than  $2,200  each. 
What  is  done  with  the  assets  of  these  companies,  which  amount 
to  $445,000,000?  They  are  loaned  out.  Here  again  the  cred 
itor  class  is  the  poor,  and  the  insurance  companies  are  the 
agents  of  the  poor  to  lend  their  money  for  them.  It  would  be 
dishonorable  for  Congress  to  legislate  either  for  the  debtor  class 
or  for  the  creditor  class  alone.  We  ought  to  legislate  for  the 
whole  country.  But  when  gentlemen  attempt  to  manufacture 
sentiment  against  the  resumption  act,  by  saying  it  will  help  the 
rich  and  hurt  the  poor,  they  are  overwhelmingly  answered  by 
vhe  facts. 

"  Suppose  you  undo  the  work  that  Congress  has  attempted— 


92  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

to  resume  specie  payment — what  will  result  ?  You  will  depre 
ciate  the  value  of  the  greenback.  Suppose  it  falls  ten  cents  on 
the  dollar.  You  will  have  destroyed  ten  per  cent  of  the  value 
of  every  deposit  in  the  savings  banks,  ten  per  cent  of  every  life- 
insurance  policy  and  fire-insurance  policy,  of  every  pension  to 
the  soldier,  and  of  every  day's  wages  of  every  laborer  in  the 
nation. 

"  In  the  census  of  1870  it  was  estimated  that  on  any  given 
day  there  were  $120,000,000  due  to  the  laborers  for  their  un 
paid  wages.  That  is  a  small  estimate.  Let  the  greenback 
dollar  come  down  10  per  cent  and  you  take  $12,000,000  from 
the  men  who  have  already  earned  it.  In  the  name  of  every  in 
terest  connected  with  the  poor  man,  I  denounce  this  effort  to 
prevent  resumption.  Daniel  Webster  never  uttered  a  greater 
truth  in  finance  than  when  he  said  that  of  all  contrivances  to 
cheat  the  laboring  classes  of  mankind  none  was  so  effective  as 
that  which  deluded  them  with  irredeemable  paper  money. 
The  rich  can  take  care  of  themselves  ;  but  the  dead-weight  of 
all  the  fluctuation  and  loss  falls  ultimately  on  the  poor  man  who 
has  only  his  day's  work  to  sell. 

u  I  admit  that  in  the  passage  from  peace  to  war  there  was  a  great 
loss  to  one  class  of  the  community,  to  the  creditors  ;  and  in  the 
return  to  the  basis  of  peace  some  loss  to  debtors  was  inevitable. 
This  injustice  was  unavoidable.  The  loss  and  gain  did  not  fall 
upon  the  same  people.  The  evil  could  not  be  balanced  nor  ad 
justed.  The  debtois  of  1802-65  are  not  the  debtors  of  1877. 
The  most  competent  judges  declare  that  the  average  life  of 
private  debts  in  the  United  States  is  not  more  than  two  years. 
Of  course,  obligations  may  be  renewed,  but  the  average  life  of 
private  debts  in  this  country  is  not  more  than  two  years.  Now, 
we  have  already  gone  two  years  on  the  road  to  resumption,  and 
the  country  has  been  adjusting  itself  to  the  new  condition  of 
things.  The  people  have  expected  resumption,  and  have 
already  discounted  most  of  the  hardships  and  sufferings  inci 
dent  to  the  change.  The  agony  is  almost  over  ;  and  if  we  now 
embark  again  upon  the  open  sea,  we  lose  all  that  has  been 
gained  and  plunge  the  country  into  the  necessity  of  trying  once 
more  the  same  boisterous  ocean,  with  all  its  perils  and  uncer 
tainties.  I  speak  the  deepest  convictions  of  my  mind  and  heart 
when  I  say  that,  should  this  resumption  act  be  repealed  and  no 
effectual  substitute  be  put  in  its  place,  the  day  is  not  far  distant 
when  all  of  us,  looking  back  on  this  time  from  the  depth  of  the 
evils  which  are  sure  to  result,  will  regret,  with  all  our  power  to 
regret,  the  day  when  we  again  let  loose  the  dangers  of  inflation 
upon  the  country." 


THE   LIFE    OF   GEtf.   JAMES   A.   GARFIELD.  93 

His  own  position  on  the  subject  of  greenbacks  is  perfectly 
delineated  in  this  paragraph  of  the  same  speech  : 

"  We  who  defend  the  resumption  act  propose  not  to  destroy 
the  greenback  but  to  dignify  it,  to  glorify  it.  The  law  that 
we  defend  does  not  destroy  it,  but  preserves  its  volume  at 
$300,000  000,  makes  it  equal  to  and  convertible  into  coin.  I  ad 
mit  that  the  law  is  not  entirely  free  from  ambiguity.  But  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  has  the  execution  of  the  law, 
declares  that  section  3579  of  the  Revised  Statutes  is  in  lull 
force,  namely  : 

"  '  When  any  United  States  notes  are  returned  to  the  Treas 
ury,  they  may  be  reissued,  from  time  to  time,  as  the  exigencies 
of  the  public  interest  may  require. ' 

44  Although  I  do  not  believe  in  keeping  greenbacks  as  a  per 
manent  currency  in  the  United  States,  although  I  do  not  my 
self  believe  in  the  Government  becoming  a  permanent  banker, 
yet  I  am  willing  for  one,  that,  in  order  to  prevent  the  shock  to 
business  which  gentlemen  fear,  the  $300,000,000  of  greenbacks 
shall  be  allowed  to  remain  in  circulation  at  par,  as  long  as  the 
wants  of  trade  show  manifestly  that  they  are  needed." 

In  1878  he  was  invited  to  make  a  speech  in  behalf  of  honest 
money  in  Faneuil  Hall.  This  argument  was  so  admirably 
adapted  to  meet  the  ingenious  fallacies  with  which  General 
Butler  at  that  time  was  agitating  the  laboring  classes  in  Massa 
chusetts  that  it  was  printed  in  a  neat  pamphlet,  together  with 
a  refutation  of  some  of  General  Butler's  recent  misstatements  on 
the  currency  question,  by  Mr.  William  Endicott,  Jr.,  a  docu 
ment  of  extraordinary  incisiveness  and  vigor  ;  and  the  speech 
and  the  letter  together  were  universally  circulated  in  Massachu 
setts,  and  produced  a  powerful  effect  on  the  then  pending  cam 
paign.  The  introduction  of  this  speech  stated  a  general  truth, 
which  is  just  as  applicable  to  the  present  campaign  as  it  was  to 
that  of  1878  in  Massachusetts.  Said  he  : 

"  Real  political  issues  cannot  be  manufactured  by  the  leaders 
of  political  parties,  and  real  ones  cannot  be  evaded  by  political 
parties.  [Applause.]  The  real  political  issues  of  the  day  de 
clare  themselves  and  come  out  of  the  depths  of  that  "deep 
which  we  call  public  opinion.  The  nation  has  a  life  of  its  own 
as  distinctly  denned  as  the  life  of  an  individual.  The  signs  of 


94  THE   LIFE   OF   GEX.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

its  growth  and  the  periods  of  its  development  make  the  issues 
declare  themselves  ;  and  the  man  or  the  political  party  that 
does  not  discover  them,  has  not  learned  that  character  of  the 
nation's  life.  Now,  as  heretofore,  attempts  are  being  made  to 
create  political  issues.  They  will  all  fail.  [Applause.]  One 
group  of  politicians  is  seeking  to  find  in  the  reminiscences  of 
the  Presidential  Election  of  1876  the  political  issues  of  this 
year.  They  cannot  raise  the  dead.  [Applause.]  Others  be 
lieve  they  can  make  State  issues  the  chief  topic  of  this  year. 
But  you  are  about  to  create  the  Forty-sixth  Congress,  and  give 
it  the  impulse  of  your  aspirations  and  opinions.  The  issues  are 
too  large  for  the  boundaries  of  any  State.  They  declare  them 
selves  and  challenge  you  to  meet  them." 

Then,  reviewing  the  successive  dominant  issues  that  had  con 
trolled  the  politics  of  the  country  since  the  firing  on  Sumter,  he 
was  brought  to  that  which  he  regarded  as  the  fourth  and  the 
last,  and  this  issue  still  remains.  It  is  that  of  the  finances,  as  to 
which  he  began  by  recalling  the  heroic  period  of  the  war,  when 
the  exigencies  of  the  Government  were  met  by  voluntary  loans 
and  cheerfully-paid  taxes  by  the  people.  Then  he  recurred  to  the 
forced  loan  required  by  the  exigencies  of  the  war,  in  the  shape 
of  the  issue  of  irredeemable  greenbacks.  Referring  to  Lin 
coln's  recommendation  of  the  organization  of  national  banks, 
the  final  step  in  broadening  our  financial  ability  to  meet  extra 
ordinary  emergencies,  he  said  that,  great  as  were  the  tasks 
undertaken  by  him  and  his  associates,  they  did  not  claim  wis 
dom  enough  "to  regulate  the  inexorable  laws  of  value  and  of 
trade  ;"and  that  brought  him  face  to  face  with  the  most  popu 
lar  of  all  the  financial  fallacies  that  have  afflicted  the  country — 
that  of  a  currency  issued  by  the  Government  to  meet  "the 
w ants  of  trade,"  as  to  which  there  is  no  better  definition  of 
what  is  practicable  and  impracticable  than  Garfield  gave  in  the 
following  passage  : 

"  Is  there  any  man  in  America  wise  enough  to  measure  the 
wants  of  trade  and  tell  just  how  much  currency  is  needed  ? 
Who  forgets  the  infinite  difficulty  to  find  a  man  with  brain 
enough  and  resource  enough  to  feed  an  army  and  to  clothe  it 
und  to  house  it  ?  Its  house  is  of  the  rudest — only  a  piece  of 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  VJ5 

cloth  ;  its  clothing  is  of  the  simplest,  and  its  food  is  a  definitely- 
prescribed  ration.  But  it  is  considered  worthy  of  the  glory  of 
one  glorious  life  to  be  able  to  feed  and  clothe  and  house  an 
army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men.  [Applause.]  Now,  fellow- 
citizens,  suppose  somebody  should  offer  to  take  the  contract  of 
feeding,  clothing,  and  housing  Boston  and  its  suburbs,  includ 
ing  half  a  million  of  men.  Remember  that  all  nations  are 
placed  under  contribution  to-supply  the  city  of  Boston  :  every 
clime  sends  its  supplies  ;  every  portion  of  our  own  land,  all  our 
roads  of  transportation  are  looked  to  to  supply  the  tables, 
houses,  and  the  clothing  of  this  community.  Do  you  suppose 
any  man  in  the  world  is  wise  enough,  is  skilful  enough  to  sup 
ply  the  wants  of  this  population,  in  a  circle  of  twenty  miles 
around  Boston  ?  Now  multiply  that  by  a  hundred,  and  get  the 
population  of  the  United  States.  Is  there  any  man  in  this 
world  wise  enough,  is  there  any  congress  in  the  world  wise 
enough,  to  measure  the  wants  of  45,000,000  of  people  and  tell 
just  what  is  needed  for  their  supplies?  [Applause.]  No, 
fellow-citizens  ;  but  there  is  something  behind  legislation  that 
does — does  all  so  quietly  and  so  perfectly.  Every  man  seeking 
his  own  interest,  millions  of  men  acting  for  themselves,  acting 
under  the  great  law  of  supply  and  demand,  the  laws  of  trade, 
feed  Boston,  feed  the  United  States,  clothe,  house,  and  trans 
port  the  nation  and  carry  on  all  its  mighty  works  in  perfect 
harmony  and  with  ease,  because  the  higher  law  above  legisla 
tion — the  law  of  demand  and  supply — pervading  and  covering 
all,  settles  that  great  question,  far  above  the  wisdom  of  one 
man,  or  a  thousand  men  to  determine  it. 

"And  now,  one  of  the  great  means  by  which  all  these 
mighty  tranasctions  are  carried  on  is  the  currency  that  circu 
lates  and  exchanges  values  among  all  these  people.  Every 
transaction,  abroad  or  at  home,  of  the  eleven  hundred  million 
dollars'  worth  of  trade  we  have  with  Europe  and  Asia,  of  the 
ten  times  greater  value  of  our  home  trade,  is  carried,  on  and 
regulated  by  that  great  pervading  law,  higher  than  legislation 
and  wiser  than  the  wisdom  of  men.  To  that  law  we  must  con 
form  our  currency  system,  or  it  will  perish.  Any  congress  or 
any  party  that  tells  you  they  are  going  to  vote  a  sufficient  sup 
ply  of  currency  for  the  wants  of  trade,  tells  you  they  are  going 
to  do  an  impossibility.  [Applause.]  It  cannot  be.  [Applause.] 
And  it  was  for  that  reason  that  the  men  of  1862  and  1864 
established  a  system  of  banking  to  be  diffused  throughout  the 
Republic,  which  was  held  to  the  strictest  accountability  for  the 
character  of  its  securities  to  the  depositors  and  bill-holders  ; 


96  THE   LIFE   OP   GEtf.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

but  the  volume  of  its  circulation  was  to  depend,  not  upon  the 
uncertain  will  and  more  uncertain  wisdom  of  Congress,  but 
upon  the  law  of  demand  and  supply.  Bound  always  to  redeem 
their  notes  in  greenbacks  or  coin,  their  own  interests  and  safety 
would  lead  them  to  enlarge  or  contract  that  volume,  as  the 
tide  of  business  should  ebb  or  flow. 

"  Such  was  the  origin,  and  such  the  character  of  the  financial 
system  established  by  the  men  who  guided  the  war  for  the 
Union."  [Applause.] 

He  then  proceeded  to  show  what  the  Government  had  done 
to  relieve  the  people  of  the  terrible  burdens  of  debt  that  were 
necessarily  incurred  in  the  salvation  of  the  Union.  He  showed 
that  in  exact  proportion  as  the  nation  had  observed  good  faith 
to  its  creditors  had  prosperity  come  in  and  grown,  and  had  the 
burdens  of  taxation  been  diminished. 

"  All  the  finance  of  the  period,"  said  he,  "  is  summed  up  in 
the  present  overmastering  duty  to  resume  specie  payments  and 
keep  the  promise.  And  here,"  he  added,  "I  meet  the  chief 
debate  on  the  issues  of  this  year.  This  proposition  is  met 
throughout  America  by  a  storm  of  indignant  opposition,  and 
we  stand  to-day  in  the  very  teeth  of  a  storm  that  we  must 
either  meet  in  honor  or  be  swept  away  by.  On  that  ground  we 
meet  our  antagonists,  and  challenge  them  to  the  combat." 

Then  he  tackled  squarely  the  fiat  money  delusion  in  all  its 
phases  ;  riddled  completely  General  Butler's  scheme  of  a  non- 
exportable  and  inconvertible  fiat  money  ;  brought  to  view  the 
purposes  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Constitution  in  limiting  the 
powers  of  Congress  as  to  fixing  the  standards  of  value  ;  defined 
the  nature  and  use  of  paper  money,  and  ridiculed  the  idea  that 
Congress  could  increase  the  wealth  or  the  comforts  of  the 
nation  by  any  amount  of  issues  of  irredeemable  paper. 

Some  of  his  illustrations  were  peculiarly  applicable  to  the  most 
ordinary  understanding.  Said  he  : 

"  Suppose  the  farmers  in  your  agricultural  districts  should 
say,  We  are  in  distress  ;  our  great  need  is  more  land  ;  if  we 
had  more  land  we  would  get  on  better  with  our  affairs  ;  and  now 
let  us  get  a  law  through  the  General  Court  that  every  man  ma>f 


THE   LIFE   01?   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD.  97 

surrender  up  his  deed  and  have  a  new  one  "written,  "with  two 
acres  for  every  one.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  When  you  can 
enlarge  your  farm  by  changing  the  figures  in  your  deeds  [laugh 
ter]  ;  when  your  dairymaid  can  make  more  butter  and  cheese 
by  watering  her  milk  [applause]  ;  when  you  can  have  more 
cloth  by  decreasing  your  yardstick  one  half  [laughter]  ;  when 
you  can  sell  more  tons  of  merchandise  by  shortening  your  pound 
one  half — then,  and  not  until  then,  you  can  increase  the  value 
of  your  property  or  labor  by  decreasing  your  standard  of 
values. ' '  [Applause.  ] 

In  the  same  line  of  illustration  was  what  he  said  of  the  effect 
of  an  inflated  currency  of  uncertain  value  : 

"  An  uncertain  currency  that  goes  up  and  down,  hits  the 
laborer,  and  hits  him  hard.  [Prolonged  applause.]  It  helps 
him  last,  and  hurts  him  first.  [Applause.]  Therefore,  of  all 
men  in  America,  the  man  who  should  demand  the  resumption 
of  specie  payment,  and  the  fixing  and  making  certain  the 
standard  of  value,  is  the  laboring  man,  who  can  only  suffer 
tvhen  that  standard  is  departed  from.  [Applause.]  The  cap 
italist  can  take  advantage  of  the  market  ;  if  he  has  anything  to 
buy,  he  is  not  compelled  to  buy  it  all  to-day;  he  can  wait  until 
the  market  price  is  low,  and  buy  at  advantage.  If  he  has  any 
thing  to  sell,  he  is  not  compelled  to  sell  it  to-day,  but  can  wait 
until  the  price  is  up,  and  sell  it  at  the  best.  Not  so  with  the 
laboring  man,  who  goes  to  market  with  just  one  thing  to  sell, 
and  that  is  his  day^s  work.  He  must  sell  it  to-day,  at  the 
price  to-day,  or  it  will  be  wholly  lost.  [Applause.]  What  he 
needs  to  buy  he  must  buy  now,  when  necessity  compels  him. 
He  cannot,  like  the  capitalist,  dodge  the  call  of  inflation  or 
contraction,  but  pays  the  day's  standard  of  value  ;  and  so  it 
strikes  him  both  ways,  and  strikes  him  hard.  [Applause.] 
What,  therefore,  the  laboring  man  needs,  is  this,  that  when  he 
has  earned  his  money,  he  shall  get  it  in  a  currency  that  will 
keep  over  night."  [Prolonged  applause  and  cheers.] 

Quoting  in  a  subsequent  part  of  this  speech  the  prediction  of 
Macaulay  made  in  1857,  that  the  conflicts  between  capital  and 
labor  would  ultimately  ^destroy  our  institutions,  he  said  that 
with  all  his  soul  he  repelled  that  prophecy  as  false  ;  and  the 
reasons  which  he  gave  for  his  faith  were  admirably  calculated 
to  lead  discontented  men  who  were  clutching  at  specious  and 


98  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES    A.  GARFIELD. 

temporary  measures  for  relief  from  business  misfortunes  tc 
broader  views  of  the  nature  and  blessedness  of  our  institutions. 
Said  he  : 

"  My  first  answer  is  this  :  No  man  who  has  not  lived  among 
us  can  understand  one  thing  about  our  institutions  ;  no  man 
who  has  been  born  and  reared  under  monarchical  governments 
can  understand  the  vast  difference  between  theirs  and  ours. 
How  is  it  in  monarchical  governments  ?  Their  society  is  one 
series  of  caste  upon  caste.  Down  at  the  bottom,  like  the  granite 
rocks  in  the  crust  of  the  earth,  lie  the  great  body  of  laboring 
men.  An  Englishman  told  me  not  long  ago  that  in  twenty-five 
years  of  careful  study  of  the  agricultural  class  of  England,  he 
had  never  known  one  who  was  born  and  reared  in  the  ranks  of 
farm  laborers  that  rose  above  his  class  and  became  a  well-to-do 
citizen.  That  is  a  most  terrible  sentence,  that  three  millions  of 
people  should  lie  at  the  bottom  of  society,  with  no  power  to 
rise.  Above  them  the  gentry,  the  hereditary  capitalist  ;  above 
them,  the  nobility  ;  above  them,  the  royalty  ;  and,  crowning  all, 
the  sovereign— all  impassable  barriers  of  caste. 

"  No  man  born  under  such  institutions  can  understand  the 
mighty  difference  between  them  and  us  in  this  country.  Thank 
God,  and  thank  the  fathers  of  the  Republic  who  made,  and  the 
men  who  carried  out  the  promises  of  the  Declaration,  that  in 
this  country  there  are  no  classes,  fixed  and  impassable.  Here 
society  is  not  fixed  in  horizontal  layers,  like  the  crust  of  the 
earth,  but,  as  a  great  New  England  man  said,  years  ago,  it  is 
rafher  like  the  ocean,  broad,  deep,  grand,  open,  and" so  free  in 
all  its  parts  that  every  drop  that  mingles  with  the  yellow  sand 
at  the  bottom  may  rise  through  all  the  waters,  till  it  gleams  iri 
the  sunshine  on  the  crest  of  the  highest  waves.  So  it  is  here  in 
our  free  society,  permeated  with  the  light  of  American  freedom. 
There  is  no  American  boy,  however  poor,  however  humble, 
orphan  though  he  may  be,  that,  if  he  have  a  clear  head,  a  true 
heart,  a  strong  arm,  he  may  not  rise  through  all  the  grades  of 
society,  and  become  the  crown,  the  glory,  the  pillar  of  the 
State. 

u  Here,  there  is  no  need  for  the  old-world  war  between 
capital  and  labor.  Here  is  no  need  of  the  explosion  of  social 
order  predicted  by  Macaulay.  All  we  need  is  the  protection  of 
just  and  equal  laws — just  alike  to  labor  and  to  capital.  Every 
poor  man  hopes  to  lay  by  something  for  a  rainy  day — hopes  to 
become  a  capitalist,  for  capital  is  only  accumulated  labor. 
Whenevor  a  laborer  has  earned  one  hundred  dollars  more  than 


THE   LIFE  OF   GEX.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  9b 

he  needs  for  daily  expenses,  he  becomes  to  that  extent  a  capi 
talist,  and  needs  to  be  safe  in  its  enjoyment.  [Applause.] 

44  There  is  another  answer  to  Macaulay.  He  could  not  under 
stand — no  man  could  understand  until  he  had  seen  it — the 
almost  omnipotent  power  of  our  system  of  education,  that 
teaches  our  people  how  to  be  free  by  teaching  them  to  be  in 
telligent.  But  fellow-citizens,  who  has  read  the  letter  of 
Macaulay  that  did  not  remember  it  a  year  ago  last  July,  when 
in  ten  great  States  of  the  Union  millions  of  American  citizens 
and  millions  of  American  property  were  in  peril  of  destruction  ? 
when  the  spirit  of  mob  ran  riot  ?  when  Pittsburg  flamed  in 
ruin  and  smoked  in  blood,  and  many  of  our  great  cities  were 
in  peril  of  destruction — who  did  not  remember  the  doctrine  of 
Macaulay  then,  and  did  not  anew  resolve  that  the  bloody  track 
of  the  Commune  should  have  no  pathway  on  our  shore  ?  [Great 
applause.] 

44 1  have  introduced  all  this  for  the  purpose  of  saying  that 
behind  the  element  that  now  attacks  the  public  faith  ;  behind 
the  misguided  honest  men  who  have  adopted  the  greenback 
theory  ;  behind  them,  and  preparing  the  movement,  is  com 
munism,  coming  from  its  dens  in  Europe  and  this  country." 

This  speech  made  a  deep  and  profound  impression  in  Massa 
chusetts  at  the  time,  and  gave  him  a  rank  in  the  opinions  of  the 
Republican  leaders  in  that  State  which  accounts  largely  for  the 
universal  gratification  with  which  his  nomination  at  Chicago 

was  received. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  January  20,  1867. 

Your  letters  are,  and  have  always  been,  a  source  of  great  pleasure  to  ine  ;  for 
I  feel  that  we  have  much  less  need  than  most  people  of  those  commonplace 
platitudes  and  guarded  utterances  which  so  abound  in  correspondence.  J  hope 
our  New  Year's  custom  will  never  be  abandoned  till  one  of  us  is  removed  be 
yond  the  necessity  of  earthly  communications.  1  am  preparing  for  the  financial 
legislation  which  will  develop  all  the  mania  of  th«  paper  age.  I  expect  to  be 
overborne  by  the  brute  force  of  votes ;  but  I  expect  to  be  vindicated  before 
long,  when  the  people  look  back  from  the  galf  of  financial  ruin  into  which  they 
are  hastening,  and  see  that  I  was  the  true  friend  of  their  industrial  interests. 
The  appeal  from  Philip  drunk  to  Philip  sober  is  not  a  pleasant  one  to  make  ;  it 
is  not  complimentary  to  Philip.  .  .  . 

(Garfida  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  Decembers,  1867. 

The  appointment  took  the  House  completely  by  surprise.  Schenck  had  no 
such  expectations,  and  was  iu  favor  of  my  appointment  as  chairman  of  Ways  an'* 


100  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

Means.  Next  to  the  pleasure  of  having  that  place  by  the  consent  of  the  Honse 
is  the  satisfaction  I  have  of  kn  -wing  that  the  regret  is  very  general  that  I  was 
net  appointed.  Of  course,  the  place  I  am  in  is  important,  but  out  of  the  chosen 
line  of  my  studies.  I  don't  intend  to  be  thrown  out  of  financial  work,  and,  al 
ready,  a  few  of  us  who  have  ideas  on  the  subject  are  talking  of  forming  a  sort  of 
volunteer  outside  committee  to  consider  these  subjects  together  and  debate 
them  in  the  House.  .  .  .  I  have  examined  the  testimony  and  reports  of  the 
Judiciary  Committee  in  reference  to  impeachment,  and  have  been  compelled  to 
conclude  that  they  have  not  made  out  a  case.  1  shall,  therefore,  vote  against  the 
measure.  It  may,  and  probably  will,  cost  me  my  political  life.  I  see  all  this, 
and,  after  having  studied  the  question  of  impeachment  carefully,  I  see  my  duty 
most  clearly,  and  I  am  glad  to  tell  you  that  my  heart  and  will  have  not  hesitated 
for  a  moment  in  daciding  my  course. 

You  and  I  are  trying  experiments— you  to  see  whether  a  man  can  think  and 
speak  his  convictions  and  stay  in  the  Disciple  ministry  ;  I,  whether  I  can  do  the 
same  and  represent  a  Western  Reserve  consiituency.  We  shall  know  before 
long  whether  the  experiment  can  succeed  ;  if  ii  fails,  the  world  is  wide,  and  we 
are  free. 

(Oarfidd  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  December  15, 1867. 

I  appreciate  what  you  say  in  reference  to  the  currency  question.  My  convic 
tions  on  some  points  of  that  subject  are  so  clear  that  I  have  a  very  plain  duty  to 
do,  from  which  I  dare  not  flinch,  were  I  coward  enough  to  desire  to. 

The  Phillipses  are  quite  mistaken  in  supposing  that  theirs,  is  a  case  without 
precedent.  On  the  contrary,  there  are  an  abundance  of  precedents,  both  in  our 
own  and  other  countries,  and  they  all  teach  the  same  lesson.  Financial  subjects 
are  nuts  and  clover  for  demagogues.  Men's  first  opinions  are  almost  always 
wrong  in  regard  to  them,  as  they  are  in  rega:d  to  astronomy,  and  he  who  reads 
the  truths  that  he  deepest  is  iu  imminent  danger  of  being  tabooed  for  a  madman. 
.  .  .  It  may  be  that  before  very  long  the  only  escape  out  of  the  Bmler- 
Fendleton  bond  repudiation  scheme  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  contraction  and 
inflation  fight  on  the  other,  is  by  the  shortest  road  to  specie  payments,  when  the 
contractionists  will  be  willing  to  let  the  inflationists  have  their  fill  of  paper 
money  so  long  as  they  redeem  it,  and  when  the  cry  that  the  soldier  or  his  widow 
is  paid  in  poorer  money  than  the  bondholder  would  be  ended.  The  early  return 
to  specie  payments  would  settle  more  difficult  and  dangerous  questions  than  any 
one  such  act  LAas  done  in  history,  so  far  as  I  know.  I  am  glad  to  have  the  op 
portunity  cf  standing  up  agaiust  a  rabble  of  men  who  hasten  to  make  weather 
cocks  of  themselves. 

Think  of  this:  December  8th,  1865,  the  House  passed  the  following  resolu 
tion  by  ayes  144,  noes  6  :  "  Resolved,  That  this  House  cordially  concurs  in  the 
views  of  trie  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  relation  to  the  necessity  of  a  contrac 
tion  of  the  currency,  with  a  view  to  as  early  resumption  to  specie  payments  as 
the  business  interests  of  the  country  will  permit,  and  we  hereby  pledge  coopera 
tion  to  this  end  as  speedily  as  possible." 

Ten  years  ago  but  thirty-two  men  were  found  to  vote  against  a  bill  to  stop 


THE    LIFE    OF    GEJT.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  101 


contraction  altogether.     There  are  near  a  hundred  of  the  same  men  who  voted 
on  the  two  measures. 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

HIRAM,  OHIO,  New  Year's  Eve,  1867-1868. 

I  fear  I  am  not  able  to  write  you  anything  that  will  be  more  than  an  apology 
for  my  usual  New  Year's  letter.  I  have  just  returned  from  a  tedious  trip  to 
Ashtabula,  where  I  made  a  two  hours'  speech  on  finance,  and,  when  I  came  home, 
came  through  a  storm  of  paper-money  denunciation  in  Cleveland,  only  to  find  011 
my  arrival  here  a  sixteen-page  letter  full  of  alarm  and  prophecy  of  my  political  ruin 
lor  my  opinions  on  the  currency. 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  April  10,  1874. 

I  have  no  doubt  the  speech  will  lo  me  great  injury  in  the  district,  and  add 
new  fuel  to  the  hostility  against  me  ;  but  I  would  not  on  any  account  flinch  from 
my  conviction  on  this  subject.  I  have  probably  never  received  higher  encomiums 
for  anything  I  have  done  in  Congress  than  for  this  liberal  speech  ;  but,  of  course, 
the  praise  comes  mainly  from  those  who  are  not  of  the  West. 

(Garfldl  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  April  23,  1874 

Who  will  deny  that  Grant  is  one  of  tho  luckiest  men  that  ever  sat  in  the 
Presidential  chair  ?  For  twenty  years  no  President  has  had  an  opportunity  to  do 
the  country  so  much  service  by  a  veto  message  as  Grant  has,  and  he  has  met  tho 
issue  manfully.  You  will  read  the  veto  message  before  this,  and  see  how  valid 
a  blow  he  struck  the  inflation  iniquity. 


CHAPTER  X. 

GARFIELD    AND    THE    TARIFF. 

difficult  and  complicated  questions  involved  in  the  dis 
cussion  of  the  antagonistic  systems  of  "  Protection"  and  "  Free 
Trade"  have  been  gradually  assuming  more  and  more  prominence 
in  the  public  mind,  since  the  issues  growing  out  of  the  war  have 
been  either  settled  or  reduced  into  secondary  rank.  It  is  quite 
likely  that,  as  the  nation  becomes  more  consolidated  and  sec 
tional  animosities  die  out,  the  Tariff  question  will  again  rise  to  the 
proportions  which  it  occupied  during  the  long  period  when  our 
ablest  statesmen  gave  their  best  energies  to  its  discussion,  and 
when  Presidents  were  elected  or  defeated  largely  on  account  of 
the  popularity  or  unpopularity  of  their  views  on  the  subject  of 
Protection.  It  might  have  been  expected  that  Garfield,  whose 
interest  in,  and  knowledge  of,  political  matters  was  like  that  of 
most  men  of  his  age  at  the  time  preceding  the  war  and  for 
years  afterward,  would  have  given  little  thought  to  the  princi 
ples  which  underlie  the  great  controversies  made  memorable  in 
our  history  by  such  discussions  as  those  of  Clay,  Calhoun,  Web 
ster,  Bent  on,  and  other  great  statesmen.  To  a  certain  exten 
this  was  true.  "When,  at  lite  age  of  17,  he  had  fixed  the  whole 
purpose  of  his  resolute  nature  on  the  acquisition  of  a  college 
education,  and  when  that  involved  not  only  hard  study  but 
hard  work  and  great  privations  in  the  attainment  of  the  means 
for  getting  an  education,  he  determined  to  interest  himself  in 
nothing  that  would  divert  his  mind  or  energies  from  the  manly 
path  he  had  laid  out  for  himself  to  pursue.  It  is  possible  that 
he  might  have  been  confirmed  in  this  purpose  by  the  influence 
of  a  fellow-pupil  of  great  strength  of  character  and  individu 
ality,  wrho  was  imbued  with  the  views  of  the  class  then  known 
as  the  "  Come-outers."  These  people,  enthused  by  the  extreme 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  103 

anti-slavery  views  of  Garrison,  had  come  to  the  religious  con 
viction  that  it  was  wrong  to  have  any  connection  with  or  inter 
est  in  the  politics  of  the  age,  on  the  ground  that  both  political 
parties  were  so  far  complicated  with  the  maintenance  of  the 
institution  of  slavery  that  to  sustain  either  party  would  be  to 
help  preserve  what  they  regarded  as  the  sum  of  all  villainies 
and  wrongs.  His  schoolmate's  earnest  talk  in  this  vein  made 
such  an  impression  on  Garfield  that  it  might  have  been  damaging 
in  its  results,  but  for  the  publication,  about  that  time,  of  a  series  of 
articles  by  Alexander  Campbell,  the  great  founder  of  the  "  Disci 
ples,"  or  the  "  Campbellite"  sect,  as  they  have  been  wrongly  term 
ed,  which  took  the  bold  ground  that  there  was  Biblical  and  Chris 
tian  authority  for  the  maintenance  of  the  relation  of  master  and 
slave.  But  with  this  qualification,  that  whoever  adopted  this 
theory  was  bound  to  apply  the  Christian  law  of  love  to  the 
neighbor  in  his  relations  with  the  slave — a  qualification  which, 
it  is  needless  to  say,  would  have  been  pretty  nearly  impracti 
cable  to  maintain  in  fact.  The  great  power  of  Campbell  over 
young  Garfield's  mind,  and  the  clearness  of  Campbell's  demon 
stration,  rescued  him  from  the  ultra-fanaticism  of  his  school 
mate.  But  from  that  time  till  he  completed  his  college  course 
he  gave  as  little  thought  and  time  to  the  study  and  discussion 
of  any  other  political  questions  than  those  growing  out  of  the 
institution  of  slavery,  as  it  was  possible  for  so  vigorous  and 
active  a  mind  to  refrain  from  bestowing. 

In  the  senior  year  in  college  his  attention  was  first  directed, 
in  the  usual  course  of  study  in  Way  land's  "  Political  Economy," 
to  the  question  of  Protection  and  Free  Trade,  to  which  it  was 
his  destiny  to  give  a  much  more  thorough  study  than  has  been 
pursued  by  any  of  our  statesmen  whose  political  reputations 
have  been  made  since  the  war.  Wayland's  text-book  is  that  of 
a  moderate,  conservative,  and  philosophical  writer,  whose  ten 
dencies  were  toward  Free  Trade,  but  who  recognized  and  ad 
mitted  the  practical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  realizing  it.  Gar- 
fieTd  gave  himself  to  the  study  of  this  text-book  with  all  the 
vigor  and  independent  habit  of  thinking  which  have  character- 


104  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

ized  him  from  the  beginning.  He  did  his  own  thinking.  His 
mind  was  open  to  the  reception  of  the  conflicting  views  that 
were  presented  in  his  text-book,  and  upheld  by  that  broad- 
minded  and  statesman-like  teacher,  President  Mark  Hopkins. 
His  immediate  teacher,  Professor  Perry,  was  more  inclined  to 
radical  Free  Trade  doctrines,  but  had  not  then  developed  into 
the  doctrinaire  which  he  has  since  become.  At  the  close  of  the 
chapters  in  Wayland  on  the  subject  of  Protection  and  Free 
Trade,  Professor  Perry  asked  Garfield  what  were  the  impres 
sions  that  he  had  received,  and  the  views  he  entertained.  His 
reply  at  that  time  was  remarkable,  not  only  for  its  terseness 
and  comprehensiveness,  but  as  showing  the  keen  intuitions  of 
his  nature  and  his  readiness  to  accept  practical  limitations  ;  in 
fact,  his  whole  life  had  been  such  a  strenuous  struggle  against 
practical  limitations  that  he  was  in  little  danger  of  becoming  a 
mere  theorist.  His  reply  to  Professor  Perry  was  this  : 

"  As  an  abstract  theory,  the  doctrine  of  Free  Trade  seems  to  lie 
universally  true,  hut  as  a  question  of  practicability,  under  a  govern 
ment  like  ours,  the  protective  system  seems  to  l>e  indispensable." 

On  this  broad  basis  Garfield  has  firmly  stood,  and  built  up  a 
national  reputation  as  a  statesman,  in  the  handling  of  the  ques 
tion  of  Protection. 

For  ten  years  after  this  definition  of  his  views,  the  state  of 
the  country — the  absorbing  and  exciting  nature  of  the  slavery 
quesf  :on,  of  the  war,  and  of  the  legislation  growing  out  of  the 
war — prevented  him  from  giving  much  attention  to  subjects  in 
volving  merely  financial  considerations.  But  in  1866,  in  a  speech 
which  he  made  in  the  House,  he  showed  that  integrity,  con 
sistency,  and  development  of  intellectual  conviction  which  is  so 
greatly  characteristic  of  his  mind. 

In  his  speech  in  Congress  he  simply  enlarged  the  definition 
which  he  gave  to  Professor  Perry.  He  said  : 

u  "We  have  seen  that  one  extreme  school  of  economists  would 
place  the  price  of  all  manufactured  articles  in  the  hands  of  for 
eign  producers  by  rendering  it  impossible  for  our  manufacturers 
to  compete  witii  them  ;  while  the  other  extreme  school,  by 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  105 

making  it  impossible  for  the  foreigner  to  sell  his  competing 
wares  in  our  market,  would  give  the  people  no  immediate  check 
upon  the  prices  which  our  manufacturers  might  fix  for  their 
products.  I  disagree  with  both  these  extremes.  I  hold  that 
a  properly  adjusted  competition  between  home  and  foreign  prod 
ucts  is  the  best  gauge  by  which  to  regulate  international  trade. 
Duties  should  be  so  high  that  our  manufacturers  can  fairly  com 
pete  with  the  foreign  product,  but  not  so  high  as  to  enable 
them  to  drive  out  the  foreign  article,  enjoy  a  monopoly  of  the 
trade,  and  regulate  the  price  as  they  please.  This  is  my  doc 
trine  of  protection.  If  Congress  pursues  this  line  of  policy 
steadily  we  shall,  year  by  year,  approach  more  nearly  to  the 
basis  of  free  trade,  because  we  shall  be  more  nearly  able  to  com 
pete  with  other  nations  on  equal  terms.  I  am  for  a  protection 
which  leads  to  ultimate  free  trade.  I  am  for  that  free  trade 
which  can  only  be  achieved  through  a  reasonable  protection." 

From  the  platform  which  he  laid  down  for  himself  then  he 
has  never  been  driven  by  clamor,  by  misrepresentation,  or  by 
fear  of  being  misunderstood.  Every  speech  he  has  made  since 
then  on  the  Tariff  has  been  in  rigid  consistency  with  the  princi 
ples  laid  down  in  the  above  comprehensive  paragraph.  On  the 
1st  of  April,  1870,  he  made  another  speech  on  the  Tariff  ques 
tion,  which  shows  the  progress  of  his  study  of  the  historical 
illustrations  of  the  practical  workings  of  Protection.  He  was 
perfectly  ready  to  admit,  at  the  outset,  that,  as  an  abstract 
theory  of  political  economy,  Free  Trade  has  an  attractive  aspect, 
and  that  much  can  be  said  in  its  favor  ;  nor  did  he  deny  that  the 
scholarship  of  modern  times  is  largely  on  that  side,  or  that  the 
great  majority  of  thinkers  of  the  present  day  are  leaning  in  the 
direction  of  what  is  called  Free  Trade  ;  but  while  making  these 
concessions,  with  his  customary  liberality,  he  held  that  it  was 
equally  undeniable  that  the  principle  of  Protection  has  always 
been  recognized  and  admitted,  in  some  form  or  other,  by  all 
nations,  and  is  to-day,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  the  policy  of 
every  civilized  government.  Going  through  with  the  history 
of  the  planting  of  colonies  in  the  New  World,  and  of  the  policy 
pursued  by  England,  particularly,  toward  her  colonies,  he 
summarized  the  methods  by  which  England  sought  to  make  the 


100  THE   LIFE    OF    GEN.   JAMES    A.   GAKFIELD. 

colonists  the  mere  dependent  customers  of  the  mother  country, 
for  every  article  which  it  was  to  the  interest  of  England  to  ex 
port. 

By  this  record  of  continuous  and  more  and  more  oppressive 
tyranny  over  the  colonists  he  illustrated  the  evil  effects  of  such 
a  system,  and  accounted  for  the  subsequent  reaction  in  England 
and  in  European  nations  toward  Free  Trade.  The  sentiment  of 
Free  Trade,  as  a  protest  against  the  old  system  of  oppression 
and  prohibition,  he  believed  to  be  a  sound  one,  but  he  held  and 
proved  that,  underlying  all  theories,  there  had  been  a  strong  and 
deep  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  great  majority  of  our  people 
in  favor  of  protecting  American  industry.  And  in  the  use  of 
this  phrase,  "  American  industry,"  he  was  particular  to  avoid 
any  misapprehension  as  to  his  meaning.  He  objected  to  any 
theory  that  treats  the  industries  of  the  country  as  they  were 
treated  in  the  preceding  census,  where  we  had  one  schedule  for 
"  agriculture''  and  another  for  "  industry,"  as  though  agricul 
ture  were  not  an  industry,  as  though  commerce  and  art  and 
transportation  were  not  industries.  Said  he  : 

*'  American  industry  is  labor  in  any  form  which  gives  value 
to  ,the  raw  materials  or  elements  of  nature,  either  by  ex 
tracting  them  from  the  earth,  the  air,  or  the  sea,  or  by 
modifying  their  forms  or  transporting  them  through  the 
channels  of  trade  to  the  markets  of  the  world,  or  in  any  way 
rendering  them  better  fitted  for  the  use  of  man.  All  these  are 
parts  of  American  industry,  and  deserve  the  careful  and  earnest 
attention  of  the  legislature  of  the  nation.  Wherever  a  ship 
ploughs  the  sea,  or  a  plough  furrows  the  field  ;  wherever  a  mine 
Yields  its  treasure  ;  wherever  a  ship  or  a  railroad  train  carries 
freight  to  market  ;  wherever  the  smoke  of  the  furnace  rises  or 
the  clang  of  the  loom  resounds  ;  even  in  the  lonely  garret  where 
the  seamstress  plies  her  busy  needle,  there  is  industry." 

Then,  as  ever  since,  he  was  willing  to  modify  the  Tariff 
wherever  a  change  would  give  most  relief  to  industry,  and  he 
advised  those  who  want  d  to  undertake  this  difficult  task  to 
study  the  key  to  our  financial  problems,  or  at  least  the  chief 
factor  in  every  such  problem,  the  "  doctrine  of  prices,''  and 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD.  107 

suggested  that,  if  he  was  to  direct  any  student  of  finance 
where  to  begin  his  studies  he  would  refer  him  to  the  great 
work  of  Thomas  Tooke  on  the  "History  of  Prices,"  as  the 
foundation  upon  which  to  build  the  superstructure  of  his 
knowledge. 

Going  through  the  then  recent  history  of  prices  in  connection 
with  the  increase  of  duties,  and  the  annual  expenditures  of  the 
government,  as  well  as  the  condition  of  our  foreign  trade,  he 
pointed  out  the  fact,  which  was  ignored  by  "  high  tariff  "  men, 
that  the  markets  of  neighboring  countries  were  not  buying  our 
products  in  the  same  proportion  as  before  the  war,  and  that 
one  of  the  most  efficient  methods  of  encouraging  home  industry 
was  to  secure  extensive  markets,  which  could  only  be  brought 
about  by  adjusting  our  prices  so  as  to  open  our  trade  to  more  of 
the  markets  of  the  New  World. 

When  it  came  to  the  question  of  adjusting  taxation,  he  held, 
first,  that  we  should  tax  the  "vices"  of  the  people,  "  if  that 
term  may  be  properly  applied  to  some  of  their  social  habits." 
He  admitted,  and  was  one  of  the  first  to  do  so,  that  the  income 
tax  was  "vexatious  and  inquisitorial,"  and  hoped  that  our 
revenues  would  soon  allow  its  abolition.  Discussing  what  is 
known  as  the  "  Morrill  Tariff  "  that  was  adopted,  in  1861,  in  a 
most  extraordinary  and  exceptional  state  of  affairs,  and  which 
required  extensive  adjustments  to  conditions  that  existed  in 
1866,  he  said  that  he  had  "  refused  to  be  the  advocate  of  any 
special  interest  as  against  the  general  interest  of  the  whole  coun 
try."  "  Whatever,"  said  he,  "  may  be  the  personal  or  political 
consequences  to  myself,  I  shall  try  to  act  first  for  the  good  of 
all,  and,  within  that  limitation,  for  the  industrial  interests  of 
the  district  which  I  represent."  That  he  was  sincere  in  this 
expression  was  proved  by  the  position  which  he  took  in  regard 
to  a  provision  of  the  "  Schenck  Tariff  Bill"  which  most  con 
cerned  the  only  great  manufacturing  interest  in  his  own  district 
— that  is,  the  duty  on  pig-iron.  There  were  at  that  time  nine 
teen  iron-furnaces  in  blast  in  his  district,  nine  more  in  the  dis 
trict  of  his  colleague,  Judge  Ambler,  and  several  more  in  the 


108  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GARFIEL 

adjoining  district,  represented  by  another  colleague,  Mr.  Upton. 
The  bill  reduced  the  duty  on  pig-iron  $2,  which  was  22^  per  cent 
less  than  the  existing  duty.  Nevertheless,  with  a  full  knowledge 
of  the  certain  results  in  his  own  district,  and  on  a  most  influen 
tial  body  of  men,  of  his  declaration,  he  frankly  said  :  u  If  the 
House  of  Representatives  thinks  that  this  ought  to  be  done,  and 
if  I  shall  be  convinced  that  the  public  requires  it,  I  shall  not 
resist  it.1' 

It  is  unnecessary  to  refer  to  many  of  Garfield's  speeches 
on  the  Tariff  question.  He  has  been  so  consistent  through 
out  that  it  is  only  needed  that  extracts  be  given  from  a  few  of 
the  more  important  of  those  speeches,  delivered  at  consider 
able  intervals  from  one  another.  In  1878  an  exceedingly  able, 
ingenious,  and  eloquent  plea  for  a  Tariff  adjusted  to  the  old 
Southern  doctrines  was  made  by  that  distinguished  Virginian, 
Mr.  J.  Randolph  Tucker.  Mr.  Tucker's  presentation  of  the 
subject  to  a  Democratic  House  was  so  able  that  Garfield  felt 
called  upon  to  make  a  somewhat  elaborate  reply,  and,  'as  it 
showed  the  results  of  twelve  years  of  study  and  reflection, 
since  the  making  of  the  speech  to  which  reference  has  been 
made  above,  it  is  worth  while  to  give  a  tolerably  full  concep 
tion  of  its  drift  and  powerful  points.  Having  read  and  re-read 
it  carefully,  and  having  read  all  the  great  speeches  made  in 
Congress  for  forty  years  before  the  war  on  this  difficult  ques 
tion,  it  is  my  deliberate  conviction  that  the  sound  American 
doctrine  of  Protection  has  never  been  stated  with  equal  clear 
ness,  breadth,  and  practicality.  At  the  very  outset  he  demol 
ished  the  foundations  of  Mr.  Tucker's  argument,  which  were 
based  on  the  construction  of  the  Constitution  which  was,  be 
fore  the  war,  and  still  is,  recognized  by  most  Southern  states 
men.  Mr.  Tucker  thought  that  if  we  were  10  adopt  a  proper 
construction  of  the  Constitution  we  should  find  that  the  regu 
lation  of  commerce  does  not  permit  the  protection  of  manufac 
tures,  nor  can  the  power  to  tax  be  applied  directly  or  indirectly 
to  that  object. 

Without  entering  into  an  elaborate  discussion  of  that  ques- 


t 

THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  109 

tion,  Garfield  said  :  "I  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  my  ad 
miration  of  the  courage  of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia,  who  in 
that  part  of  his  speech  brought  himself  into  point-blank  range 
of  the  terrible  artillery  of  James  Madison,  one  of  the  Fathers 
of  the  Constitution,  and  Virginia's  great  expounder  of  its  pro 
visions.  More  than  one  hundred  pages  of  the  collected  works 
of  James  Madison  are  devoted  to  an  elaborate  and  exhaustive 
discussion  of  the  very  objection  which  the  gentleman  (Mr. 
Tucker)  has  urged." 

And  he  made  his  statement  good,  by  full  quotations  from  the 
great  Virginia  expounder.  Having  thus  cleared  away  the  Vir 
ginia  and  South  Carolina  doctrines  of  the  Constitution,  he  pro 
ceeded  to  build  up  his  own  doctrine,  from  the  language  of  the 
Constitution  itself  and  from  the  practice  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Government,  quoting  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  which 
says  that  "  Congress  shall  have  power  to  lay  and  collect  taxes, 
duties,  imposts,  and  excises,  to  pay  the  debts  and  provide  for 
the  common  defence  and  general  welfare  of  the  United  States." 
He  held  that  the  power  to  tax  was  the  great  motive  power  of 
the  Government,  and  that  "  its  regulation  impels,  retards,  re 
strains,  or  limits  all  the  functions  of  the  Government.'1  With 
a  broad  comprehension  of  the  creative  ideas  of  the  Fathers  of 
the  Government,  he  said  : 

"  The  men  who  created  this  Constitution  also  set  it  in  opera 
tion,  and  developed  their  own  idea  of  its  character.  That  idea 
was  unlike  any  other  that  then  prevailed  upon  the  earth.  They 
made  the  general  welfare  of  the  people  the  great  source  and 
foundation  of  the  common  defence.  In  all  the  nations  of  the 
Old  World  the  public  defense  was  provided  for  by  great  stand 
ing  armies,  navies,  and  fortified  posts,  so  that  the  nation  might 
every  moment  be  fully  armed  against  danger  from  without  or 
turbulence  within.  Our  fathers  said  :  '  Though  we  will  use  the 
taxing  power  to  maintain  a  small  army  and  navy  sufficient  to 
keep  alive  the  knowledge  of  war,  yet  the  main  reliance  for  our 
defence  shall  be  the  intelligence,  culture,  and  skill  of  our  people  ; 
a  development  of  our  own  intellectual  and  material  resources, 
which  will  enable  us  to  do  everything  that  may  be  necessary  to 
equip,  clothe,  and  feed  ourselves  in  time  of  war,  and  make  our 
selves  intelligent,  happy,  and  prosperous  in  peace.'  " 


110  THE   LIFE   OF   GEX.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

On  this  broad  historic  and  philosophic  basis  he  erected  his 
theory  of  carrying  out  the  intention  of  the  Fathers,  and  of  mak 
ing  this  country  really  independent,  as  to  all  the  essentials, 
both  of  existence  and  of  self-defence,  against  any  foreign  enemy. 
He  showed  that  the  purpose  of  the  Fathers  to  make  their  eman 
cipation  complete  by  adding  to  agriculture  all  the  mechanical 
arts,  inspired  the  legislation  of  all  the  earlier  Congresses,  and 
that  our  legislation  was  continuously  shaped  with  this  view,  un 
til,  under  the  lead  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  the  Protective  Tariff  of 
1816  was  enacted.  After  going  through  a  discussion  of  the 
practical  operation  of  the  "  Morrill  Tariff  "  as  compared  with 
that  of  the  Revenue  Tariff  for  fifteen  years  preceding  the  war, 
he  boldly  confronted  the  glittering  generalities  of  Mr.  Tucker, 
as  expressed  in  these  beautiful  sentences  : 

"  Commerce,  Mr.  Chairman,  links  all  mankind  in  one  common 
brotherhood  of  mutual  dependence  and  interests,  and  thus  cre 
ates  that  unity  of  our  race  which  makes  the  resources  of  all  the 
property  of  each  and  every  member.  We  cannot  if  we  would, 
and  should  not  if  we  could,  remain  isolated  and  alone.  Men 
under  the  benign  influence  of  Christianity  yearn  for  intercourse, 
for  the  interchange  of  thought  and  the  products  of  thought  as 
a  means  of  a  common  progress  toward  a  nobler  civilization. 
******** 

"Mr.  Chairman,  I  cannot  believe  this  is  according  to  the 
Divine  plan.  Christianity  bids  us  seek,  in  communion  with  our 
brethren  of  every  race  and  clime,  the  blessings  they  can  afford 
us,  and  to  bestow  in  return  upon  them  those  with  which  our 
new  continent  is' destined  to  fill  the  world." 

This  he  admitted  was  "  a  grand  conception,  a  beautiful  vision 
of  the  time  when  all  the  nations  should  dwell  in  peace."  .  .  . 
u  If,"  said  he,  "  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  should  become 
the  kingdom  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  then  I  admit  that  universal 
Free  Trade  ought  to  prevail.  But  that  blessed  era  is  yet  too  re 
mote  to  be  made  the  basis  of  the  practical  legislation  of  to-day. 
We  are  not  yet  members  of  '  the  parliament  of  man,  the  federa 
tion  of  the  world.'  For  the  present  the  world  is  divided  into 
separate  nationalities  ;  and  that  other  divine  command  still  ap- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  Ill 

plies  to  our  situation  :  '  Tic  that  providcth  not  for  his  own 
household  has  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an  infidel, ' 
and  until  that  latter  era  arrives  patriotism  must  supply  the  place 
of  universal  brotherhood."  But  he  was  careful  to  isolate  him 
self  from  that  class  of  Congressmen  whose  support  of  the  Tar 
iff  has  been  due  to  the  special  interests  of  their  localities,  and 
from  those  whose  opposition  to  Protection  has  been  due  to  the 
same  influences,  and  it  may  be  safely  said  that  no  instances  can  be 
found  in  his  Congressional  career  when  he  has  done  or  refused 
to  do  anything  in  the  way  of  Tariff  legislation  not  in  consistency 
with  these  broad  declarations. 

u  Too  much  of  our  tariff  discussion  has  been  warped  by  narrow 
and  sectional  considerations.  But  when  we  base  our  action  upon 
the  conceded  national  importance  of  the  great  industries  I  have 
referred  to,  when  we  recognize  the  fact  that  artisans  and  their 
products  are  essential  to  the  well-being  of  our  country,  it  fol 
lows  that  there  is  no  dweller  in  the  humblest  cottage  on  our  re 
motest  frontier  who  has  not  a  deep  personal  interest  in  the 
legislation  that  shall  promote  these  great  national  industries. 
Those  arts  that  enable  our  nation  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  civiliza 
tion  bring  their  blessings  to  all,  and  patriotic  citizens  will  cheer 
fully  bear  a  fair  share  of  the  burden  necessary  to  make  their 
country  great  and  self-sustaining.  I  will  defend  a  tariff  that  is 
national  in  its  aims,  that  protects  and  sustains  those  interests 
without  \vhich  the  nation  cannot  become  great  and  self-sus 
taining.  " 

Then  recurring  to  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  national  de 
velopment,  as  essential  to  national  safety  and  independence,  he 
added  : 

*'  So  important,  in  my  view,  is  the  ability  of  the  nation  to 
manufacture  all  these  articles  necessary  to  arm,  equip,  and 
clothe  our  people,  that  if  it  could  not  be  secured  in  any  other 
way  I  would  vote  to  pay  money  out  of  the  Federal  Treasury  to 
maintain  Government  iron  and  steel,  woollen  and  cotton  mills, 
at  whatever  cost.  Were  we  to  neglect  these  great  interests  and 
depend  upon  other  nations,  in  what  a  condition  of  helplessness 
would  we  find  ourselves  when  we  should  be  again  involved  in 
war  with  the  very  nations  on  whom  we  were  depending  to  fur 
nish  *J.s  these  supplies  ?  The  system  adopted  by  our  fathers  is 


112  THE    LIFE    OF    GEN".   JAMES    A.   OARFIELD. 

wiser,  for  it  so  encourages  the  great  national  industries  as  to 
make  it  possible  at  all  times  for  our  people  to  equip  themselves 
for  war,  and  at  th "  same  time  inciease  their  intelligence  and 
skill  so  as  to  make  them  better  fitted  for  all  the  duties  of  citi 
zenship  both  in  war  and  in  peace.  We  provide  for  the  common 
defence  5y  a  system  which  promotes  the  general  welfare. '  * 

The  last  sentence  of  which  is  the  most  epigrammatic  statement 
of  the  American  system  of  Protection,  as  understood  by  Gar- 
field,  which  has  ever  been  made  in  Congress  ;  and  a  still  more  par 
ticular  and  definite  statement  of  Garfield's  general  attitude  on 
the  question  of  Protection  is  found  in  the  same  speech,  and 
seems  to  be  about  as  comprehensive  a  platform  and  as  practical 
a  statement  of  this  question  as  has  ever  been  proposed  by  any 
of  our  public  men  : 

"  My  view  of  the  danger  of  extreme  positions  on  the  ques 
tions  of  tariff  rates  may  be  illustrated  by  a  remark  made  by 
Horace  Greeley  in  the  last  conversation  I  ever  had  with  that  dis 
tinguished  man.  Said  he, 

ki  '  My  criticism  of  you  is  that  you  are  not  sufficiently  high 
protective  in  your  views.' 

"  I  replied, 

"  '  What  would  you  advise  ?' 

"  He  said, 

"  '  If  I  had  my  way — if  I  were  king  of  this  country — I  would 
puta  duty  of  $100  a  ton  on  pig-iron  and  a  proportionate  duty 
on  everything  else  that  can  be  produced  in  America.  The  re 
sult  would  be  that  our  people  would  be  obliged  to  supply  their 
own  wants  ;  manufactures  would  spring  up,  competition  would 
finally  reduce  pnces,  and  we  should  live  wholly  within  our 
selves.' 

"  I  replied  that  the  fatal  objection  to  his  theory  was  that  no 
man  is  king  of  this  country,  with  power  to  make  his  policy  per 
manent.  But  as  all  our  policies  depend  upon  popular  support, 
the  extreme  measure  proposed  would  beget  an  opposite  extreme, 
and  our  industries  would  suffer  from  violent  reactions.  For 
this  reason  I  believe  that  we  ought  to  seek  that  point  of  stable 
equilibrium  somewhere  between  a  prohibitory  tariff  on  the  one 
hand  and  a  tariff  that  gives  no  protection  on  the  other.  What 
is  that  point  of  stable  equilibrium  ?  In  my  judgment  it  is  this  : 
a  rate  so  high  that  foreign  producers  cannot  flood  our  markets 
and  break  down  our  home  manufacturers,  but  not  so  high  as  to 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  113 

keep  them  altogether  out,  enabling  our  manufacturers  io  com 
bine  and  raise  the  prices,  nor  so  high  as  to  stimulate  an  un 
natural  and  unhealthy  growth  of  manufactures. 

"  In  other  words,  I  would  have  the  duty  so  adjusted  that 
every  great.  American  industry  can  fairly  live  and  make  fair 
profits,  and  yet  so  low  that  if  our  manufacturers  attempted  to 
put  up  prices  unreasonably,  the  competition  from  abroad  would 
come  in  and  bring  down  prices  to  a  fair  rate.  Such  a  tariff  I 
believe  will  be  supported  by  the  great  majority  of  Americans. 
We  are  not  far  from  having  such  a  tariff  in  our  present  law.  In 
some  respects  we  have  departed  from  that  standard.  Wherever 
we  have  we  should  amend  it,  and  by  so  doing  we  shall  secure 
stability  and  prosperity." 

The  latest  exposition  of  General  Garfield's  views  on  the  Tariff 
is  found  in  a  report  by  the  minority  of  the  Committee  on  Ways 
and  Means,  submitted  to  the  House  on  the  24th  of  May  last. 
The  report,  which  was  his  production,  contains  several  interest 
ing  exhibits  showing  the  operations  of  the  Tariff,  especially  iu 
developing  the  wool-growing  interests,  and  the  operation  of  the 
proposed  tariff  on  wool  manufactures,  as  well  as  interesting 
statements  in  regard  to  the  growth  of  the  manufacture  of 
earthenware  in  the  United  States  and  its  remarkable  develop 
ment.  The  report  itself  is  a  brief  and  thoroughly  practical 
document,  reviewing  some  of  the  inconsistencies  and  injustices 
of  the  tariff  proposed  by  the  majority  of  the  Committee.  Some 
of  the  illustrations  of  the  evils  that  might  grow  out  of  the  pro 
posed  tariff  changes  are  entirely  in  the  line  of  Garfield's  consist 
ent  policy  of  developing  into  a  state  of  reasonable  independence 
and  security  those  manufactures  which  are  most  essential  to  the 
practical  independence  of  the  country,  as  to  every  article  which 
might  become  indispensable  in  case  of  foreign  war.  He  noted 
the  growth,  under  the  favoring  protection  of  the  existing  tariff, 
of  such  manufactures  as  that  of  steel  files,  which  had  within  a 
few  years  become  fully  established,  so  as  to  reduce  the  cost  of 
these  articles  to  a  point  far  lower  than  was  ever  before  known 
in  the  country.  The  minority  report  states  Garfield's  views  in 
regard  to  amending  our  tariff  system  in  this  very  succinct  and 
practical  manner,  to  wit  : 


114          THE   LIFE  OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

4i  The  undersigned  agree  that  in  many  respects  the  tariff  sys 
tem  should  be  amended.  Where  rates  are  exorbitant  they 
should  be  reduced  as  rapidly  and  as  far  as  the  wants  of  the 
revenue  and  the  prosperity  of  our  great  national  industries  will 
permit.  There  are  articles  in  the  tariff  on  wools  and  woollens 
that  may  be  reduced  ;  and  perhaps  the  whole  group  can  safelv 
bear  some  reduction.  But  on  the  whole,  no  part  of  our  tarifi 
system  has  been  more  amply  vindicated  by  experience  than  that 
which  relates  to  wools  and  woollens.  The  foundations  of  these 
provisions  were  laid  in  1861  ;  but  in  1867  the  existing  rates 
were  established,  after  a  long  and  exhaustive  investigation,  and 
with  the  concurrence  of  the  two  interests  which  had  theretofore 
been  in  opposition. 

"  The  basis  of  that  legislation  was  this  :  that  upon  the  several 
grades  of  imported  wool  a  duty  should  be  imposed  sufficient  to 
promote  the  growth  of  sheep  husbandry  in  the  United  States. 
A  specific  duty  was  then  imposed  on  woollen  goods,  as  near  as 
possible  equal  to  the  duty  put  upon  the  wool  which  entered  into 
the  manufacture.  This  was  not  protection,  but  simply  an 
equivalent  duty,  which  placed  the  woollen  manufacturer  on  the 
free-trade  level.  To  this  specific  duty  was  then  added  a  duty 
of  35  per  centum  ad  valorem  on  woollen  goods,  as  a  protection 
to  the  manufacturer  against  foreign  competition.  This  adjust 
ment  of  the  law  has  remained  substantially  unchanged  for  thir 
teen  years  ;  and  during  the  six  years  preceding  the  adjustment 
the  law  contained  similar  though  less  complete  provisions. 

'*  With  this  preliminary  statement  the  undersigned  invite 
attention  to  the  results  of  this  legislation. 

u  In  1836  the  wool  product  of  the  United  States  was  esti 
mated  at  42  millions  of  pounds  per  annum  ;  in  1860,  according 
to  the  census,  it  had  risen  to  60  million  pounds  per  annum  ; 
under  the  operations  of  the  Morrill  Tariff  the  product  had  risen 
in  1867  to  147  millions  of  pounds  per  annum  ;  in  1877  it  had 
risen  to  208  million  pounds  per  annum  ;  and  it  is  now  estimated 
to  be  250  million  pounds  per  annum.  In  the  twenty-four  years 
preceding  the  war  the  wool  product  of  this  country  had  in 
creased  but  40  per  cent ;  while  the  present  annual  product  of 
wool  is  400  per  cent  greater  than  that  of  twenty  years  ago. 

"  The  development  of  our  sheep  husbandry  has  been  most  re 
markable  in  the  West  and  South.  In  1 862  Messrs.  Hollister  & 
Dibbles  introduced  400  merino  ewes  into  California,  where 
sheep  husbandry  at  that  time  was  almost  unknown.  Now  Cali 
fornia  takes  the  lead  of  all  the  States  of  the  Union,  and  produces 
not  less  than  fifty  million  pounds  of  wool  per  annum,  an  amount 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.  GAKFiELD.  115 

nearly  equal  to  the  total  wool  product  of  the  United  States  in 
1860.  The  growth  of  the  wool  interest  has  been  hardly  less 
rapid  in  Texas,  which  now  occupies  the  second  rank  as  a  wool- 
growing  State. 

"  With  this  vast  increase  in  the  quantity,  the  improvement  in 
quality  has  been  equally  marked.  While  the  farmers  of  the 
United  States  have  been  thus  enabled  to  increase  their  food 
supply  and  increase  the  raw  material  for  the  clothing  of  our 
people,  the  effect  of  the  tariff  on  woollens  has  been  correspond 
ingly  beneficent.  In  1860  we  were  largely  dependent  for  our 
clothing  upon  foreign  wool-growers  and  foreign  manufacturers, 
at  such  prices  as  they  were  able  to  dictate.  Now  the  woollen 
fabrics  used  by  our  people  are  mainly  manufactured  by  the  skill 
and  labor  of  our  own  artisans  from  the  product  of  our  own 
flocks. 

"  No  attentive  observer  who  visited  the  Centennial  Exposition 
failed  to  notice  the  astonishment  with  which  the  French  and 
English  manufacturers  examined  the  fine  cloths  produced  by 
American  looms  ;  and  no  feature  of  that  great  exhibition  reflect 
ed  more  credit  upon  American  enterprise  and  skill.  As  a  reve 
nue  measure  the  Tariff  of  1867  on  wools  and  woollens  has  been 
very  effective,  having  produced  $360,000,000  of  revenue  in  the 
last  thirteen  years — an  average  of  $28,000,000  per  annum. 

"  The  bill  of  the  committee  destroys  the  adjustments  of  the 
existing  tariff  on  wool  and  woollens,  and  wholly  disregards  the 
relations  which  these  two  branches  of  industry  sustain  to  each 
other.  Should  it  become  a  law,  it  will  be  impossible  for  our 
farmers  to  compete  in  the  market  with  the  mestiza  wools  of 
South  America  ;  and  it  will  be  equally  impossible  for  our  manu 
facturers  to  compete  with  those  of  France  and  England.  Of 
course  any  legislation  that  destroys  the  woollen  manufactures  is 
equally  destructive  to  sheep  husbandry,  for  the  farmer  would 
no  longer  have  a  market  for  bis  wool.  That  nation  can  hardly 
be  called  independent  which  does  not  possess  the  materials  and 
the  skill  to  clothe  its  own  people. 

"  For  a  more  detailed  statement  of  the  effects  of  this  bill 
upon  our  wool  and  woollen  industries,  we  refer  to  the  very  able 
and  instructive  letter,  hereto  appended  (marked  A),  of  Mr.  John 
L.  Hayes,  secretary  of  the  National  Association  of  Wool  Manu 
facturers.  To  this  letter  is  also  appended  a  letter  (marked  B) 
of  Mr.  William  Whitman,  a  leading  manufacturer  of  Boston, 
Mass. 

"  In  reference  to  the  provisions  of  the  committee's  bill  which 
reduce  the  duties  upon  stoneware  and  crockery  ware — an  inter- 


116  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD. 

esting  and  important  industry  of  recent  origin  in  this  country — 
attention  is  invited  to  the  accompanying  letter  (marked  C)  of 
Mr.  Homer  Laughlin,  of  East  Liverpool,  Ohio,  chairman  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  United  States  Potters'  Association, 
and  also  the  letter  of  Hon.  I.  D.  Blake,  of  New  Jersey  (mark 
ed  1». 

"  Other  features  of  the  committee's  bi'l  are  equally  open  to 
just  criticism  ;  but  enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  the  spirit 
of  hostility  to  our  national  industries  which  pervades  it,  and 
the  partial  and  unjust  treatment  of  the  various  subjects  which 
it  embraces." 

It  would  be  far  easier  to  fill  a  whole  volume  with  interesting 
extracts  from  the  speeches  of  General  Garfield  on  the  Tariff 
than  it  is  to  select  from  the  numerous  illustrations  of  the  states 
manship  he  has  displayed  on  this  question  those  which  it  is  con 
sistent  with  the  limits  of  this  book  to  use  ;  but  if  all  of 
his  public  utterances  were  published  together  in  chronological 
order  they  would  only  enhance,  by  the  multiplicity  of  illustra 
tions,  the  impression  that  must  be  made  on  any  fair-minded 
and  intelligent  man  by  the  few  extracts  which  have  been  given  ; 
and  the  most  complete  collection  would  only  the  more  effect 
ually  and  variously  prove  the  consistency  of  his  policy  on  this 
subject.  From  the  beginning  of  his  public  life  he  has  favored 
the  Protection  that  would  lead  to  liberating  the  protected  arti 
cles  to  Free  Trade.  He  has  always  been  opposed  to  merely  pro 
hibitory  protection,  and  has  been  in  favor  of  a  tariff  which 
would  enable  our  people  to  fairly  compete  with  the  world  and 
to  keep  our  national  industries  alive.  He  has  opposed  a  tariff 
on  any  article  so  high  as  to  encourage  manufacturers  to  form 
monopolizing  combinations,  in  the  absence  of  foreign  competi 
tion.  In  the  maintenance  of  this  middle  ground  he  has  been 
exposed  to  the  attacks  of  two  extreme  classes.  The  first  class 
is  that  of  Free  Traders,  who  want  Free  Trade  at  once,  and  who 
forget  that,  even  if  it  were  practicable,  Congress  is  not  merely  a 
debating  society,-  but  the  representative  of  vast  numbers  of  dis 
tinct  local  interests,  all  of  which  have  to  be  considered  and 
harmonized  by  any  leader  who  attempts  to  accomplish  actual  re- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  117 

formatory  legislation.  On  the  other  hand,  he  has  had  to  stand 
the  fire  of  extreme  Protectionists,  because  they  wanted  their  own 
private  interests  furthered  by  legislation,  without  regard  to  the 
general  interests.  He  says,  himself,  of  his  attitude,  that  the  po 
sition  he  has  held  on  the  Tariff  question  is  exceptional  in  his 
career,  in  this  respect  :  that  it  has  been  a  middle  between  two 
extremes.  He  says  :  "  I  have  usually  been  at  one  pole  or  the 
other  ;  there  I  stood  on  the  equator,  and  there  insisted  that  the 
true  doctrine  was  the  point  of  stable  equilibrium,  where  we 
could  hold  a  tariff  that  would  not  be  knocked  down  every  time 
the  Free  Traders  got  into  power,  and  boosted  up  every  time  the 
Protectionists  got  into  power,  but  to  give  the  country  a  stable 
policy  where  the  tendency  would  be  toward  amelioration  all  the 
While.  I  have  held  that  equitable  ground  throughout,  and  held 
it  against  the  assaults,  now  from  one  side  and  now  from  the 
other,  and  I  estimate  it  one  of  the  greatest  of  my  achievements 
in  public  life  to  have  held  that  equipoise. ' ' 

In  spite  of  the  well-known  consistency  of  his  record  on  the 
Tariff,  it  has  been  his  fortune,  as  it  has  been  that  of  other  great 
statesmen,  to  be  the  victim  of  gross  misapprehensions  as  to  par 
ticular  declarations  of  his  views,  or  as  to  his  acts  in  Congress. 
For  instance,  at  a  time  when  Secretary  Boutwell  regarded  it 
as  of  the  utmost  importance  to  our  credit  abroad  that  the  English 
statesmen  and  people  should  understand  the  nature  of  the  fight 
which  our  soundest  statesmen  were  making  in  behalf  of  an 
honest  currency,  he  sent  to  Mr.  Gladstone  and  to  Mr.  Bright  a 
copy  of  Garfield's  then  recent  speech  on  the  currency  question, 
which  the  Secretary  regarded  as  highly  creditable  to  American 
statesmanship.  In  recognition  of  the  ability  and  soundness  of 
this  argument,  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Mr.  Bright  had  General  Gar- 
field  elected  an  honorary  member  of  the  Cobden  Club,  an  honor 
rarely  conferred  except  in  recognition  of  distinguished  states 
manship  or  ability  in  treating  economic  subjects.  From  this 
simple  fact  it  was  hastily  assumed  that  General  Garfield  had 
won  the  favor  of  a  Club  identified  with  the  propagandism  of 
Free  Trade  by  tiis  position  on  the  Tariff,  while,  in  fact,  the 


118  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

thing  which  obtained  for  him  this  unexpected  compliment  was 
a  speech  in  which  there  was  not  the  least  reference  to  the  Tariff 
question. 

A  still  more  annoying  misapprehension  grew  out  of  the  discus 
sions,  during  the  last  session  of  Congress,  on  the  question  of  re 
moving  the  duty  from  wood-pulp.  As  the  newspaper  interest 
was  generally  and  naturally  in  favor  of  this  reduction,  it  is  not 
at  all  strange  that  considerable  criticism  was  called  out  by  a  mis 
apprehension  of  Garfield's  position.  This  misapprehension  was 
due  to  the  circulation,  among  all  the  newspapers  of  the  coun 
try,  of  a  misstatement  as  to  what  his  position  was,  and  of  a 
charge  that  he  was  responsible  for  maintaining  an  odious  mo 
nopoly  in  the  manufacture  of  paper.  If  Garfield  had  been  at  all 
disposed  to  cringe  and  curry  favor  with  the  greatest, and  some 
times  the  most  dangerous,  power  in  this  country,  that  of  the 
Press,  he  would  have  avoided  taking  the  stand  which  he  did  in 
regard  to  this  matter  ;  but  he  treated  the  paper  manufacture  in 
the  same  broad  spirit  in  which  he  treated  the  iron  manufacture, 
as  to  which  his  course  at  one  time  exposed  him  to  a  good  many 
"shrieks  of  locality."  He  was  determined  not  to  budge  an 
inch  under  the  concentrated  fire  of  ever  so  many  newspapers 
that  had  not  taken  the  trouble  to  learn  the  facts  before  pro 
nouncing  judgment.  In  regard  to  the  duty  on  wood-pulp,  there 
were,  of  course,  some  newspapers  that  favored  protection  on 
other  articles  and  did  not  want  any  tariff  on  the  materials  used 
in  paper  manufacture.  These  papers  were  willing  to  support 
Protection  as  a  system,  but  thought  it  was  quite  consistent  and 
reasonable  for  them  to  be  exempted  from  its  operation,  as  re 
gards  their  own  business.  To  such  a  philosophy  as  that  he 
could  not  give  his  assent.  He  was  willing  to  reduce  the  duty 
on  wood-pulp  as  low  as  it  could  be  reduced  without  destroying 
an  industry  which  in  a  few  years  had  assumed  formidable  pro 
portions,  and  had  largely  aided  in  reducing  the  price  of  paper 
from  twenty-seven  cents  a  pound  to  five  and  one  half  cents  a 
pound.  The  discovery  of  the  German  inventor  who  conceived  the 
idea  of  supplying  the  growing  demand  for  paper  material  by  the 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD.  119 

simple  process  of  grinding  soft  wood  into  pulp  had  given  such  a 
sudden  and  vast  accession  to  the  stock  of  paper  material  that  the 
effect  of  its  introduction  was  a  steady  and  rapid  reduction  of 
prices  of  the  manufactured  article.  In  fact,  without  this  discov 
ery,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  the  demand  for  paper  could  have 
been  supplied  or  prices  kept  within  any  reasonable  limits.  For 
nearly  a  century  there  had  been  a  growing  competition  in  the 
world  between  reading  and  rags.  The  readers  had  multiplied 
their  demands  much  faster  than  the  supply  of  rags  had  been  kept 
up.  It  had  finally  reached  the  point  that  Germany  and  other 
foreign  countries  discouraged  the  exportation  of  rags,  and  Amer 
ican  paper  manufacturers  had  been  obliged  to  establish  branch 
mills  in  Egypt  for  the  reduction  of  rags  to  pulp.  It  was  not  until 
the  discovery  of  the  availability  of  soft  wood  to  supply  this  im 
portant  demand  of  civilization  that  there  seemed  to  be  any  possi 
bility  of  keeping  up  the  cheap  manufacture  of  one  of  the  most 
essential  elements  of  our  progress.  There  was  great  distrust  of 
the  new  discovery  at  first,  and  it  was  not  until  the  owners  of 
the  wood-pulp  patents  established  paper-mills  of  their  own  that 
the  utility  of  the  new  discovery  was  vindicated,  and  from  that 
time  the  growth  of  this  branch  of  industry  was  remarkably 
rapid,  so  that  fifty-seven  wood-pulp-mills  were  put  in  operation, 
and  have  turned  out  such  a  mass  of  cheap  material  for  paper  that 
the  whole  industry  has  assumed  a  new  phase.  The  duty  on 
paper  pulp  was  twenty  per  cent.  General  Garfield  proposed  to 
reduce  this  duty  to  ten  per  cent,  which  he  thought  would  about 
reach  the  lowest  point  consistent  with  preventing  our  own  home 
production  from  being  overslaughed  by  importations  of  wood- 
pulp  from  Canada,  where  no  royalty  was  paid  to  the  owners  of 
the  patent. 

This  is  the  whole  story  of  his  connection  with  the  wood-pulp 
duty.  It  was  a  simple  matter  in  itself,  but  he  probably  had  to 
encounter  more  newspaper  criticism,  a  great  deal  of  it  from 
some  of  his  most  sincere  admirers  and  supporters,  than  for 
any  other  act  of  his  Congressional  life.  He  appreciated  this 
from  the  first,  understood  it,  disliked  it,  but  did  not  fear  it,  and 


120  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKF1ELD. 

did  not  vary  his  policy  a  hair's-breadth  from  the  strict  line 
which  he  has  pursued  from  the  beginning  of  his  Congressional 
career,  in  deciding  as  to  the  details  of  Protection.  On  the 
whole,  it  is  probable  that  most  of  the  newspaper  editors  who 
favored  him  with  indignant  execrations  think  all  the  more  of  him 
at  present  because  he  was  so  steady  and  unmoved,  even  by  the 
clamor  of  the  Press.  He  had  no  selfish  motive  whatever  to  stand 
by  this  particular  duty  on  wood-pulp.  There  was  not  a  paper- 
mill  in  his  district.  Among  the  most  earnest  advocates  of  the 
abolition  of  the  duty  were  editors  who  were  his  warmest  per 
sonal  friends.  It  was  easy  for  him  to  have  evaded  any  contest 
of  this  sort,  or  to  have  yielded.  He  did  neither.  He  per 
formed  his  duty,  took  all  the  attacks  on  himself  good-naturedly, 
and  was  very  little  disturbed  by  them. 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  October  14,  1865. 

I  have  read  the  history  and  philosophy  of  the  Tariff  question  very  thorough 
ly,  though  I  have  not  yet  finished  it.  When  I  see  you  I  want  to  give  you  the 
salient  points  in  the  history  of  British  commercial  policy  ;  it  is  very  curious  and 
interesting.  .  .  . 

In  the  literary  way  I  have  fallen  upon  one  of  the  finest  things  I  have  ever 
met.  Jt  is  Walter  Savage  Laudor's  "  Pericles  and  Aspasia,"  which  gives  in  the 
most  vivid  and  beautiful  style  the  best  summary  I  have  ever  seen  of  the  spirit 
and  character  of  Greek  history,  politics,  philosophy  aud  literature,  it  has  been 
a  very  rich  treat  to  us  all.  We  are  yet  in  the  midst  of  it. 

(Garfldd  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  December  20,  1879. 

I  have  noticed  the  insincere  and  absurd  talk  of  the  politicians  about  high 
tariff  bills.  Put  these  two  things  together:  ''Garfield  is  too  valuable  a  man  in 
the  House  to  be  spared,"  "  Garfield  is  unsound  on  the  tariff,  aud  ought  not  to  be 
elected  to  the  Senate."  Yet  these  arguments  are  used  by  the  same  men.  If  I 
were  to  consult  my  own  preference  entirely,  apart  from  public  opinion,  and  if  1 
could  be  sure  of  continued  robust  health,  1  would  prefer  to  remain  in  the  House  ; 
but  the  bone-breaking  work  that  position  has  brought  upon  me  for  the  last  few 
years  admonishes  me  that  my  final  break-down  of  health  must  soon  come  if  I 
continue  where  I  am.  The  Senate  is  a  smaller  body,  and  I  shall  there  probably 
escape  the  responsibilities  and  labors  of  leadership.  Then  it  would  tseem  churl 
ish  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  reasonable  ambition  of  my  friends  in  the  Nine 
teenth  District,  and  so,  if  the  Senatornhip  oomi-s  tome,  I  shall  take  it ;  but  with 
some  sadness  and  regret.  The  talk  of  the  newspapers  about  the  succes^orehip 
aas  been  premature  aud  embarrassing  to  all  of  us. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

COMMITTEE    WORK. 

So  far  as  the  national  reputation  of  members  of  Congress  is 
concerned,  it  is  mostly  founded  on  their  more  important  speeches 
and  measures.  So  far  as  their  reputation  among  Congressmen  is 
concerned,  the  ability,  fidelity,  and  judgment  with  which  com 
mittee  work  is  performed  is  a  much  more  decisive  test  of  rela 
tive  standing.  There  always  have  been  in  Congress  a  few  mem 
bers  who  seldom  made  speeches  of  any  length,  and  yet  com 
manded  unusual  respect  from  their  fellow-members,  and 
wielded  a  very  large  influence,  from  their  familiarity  with  the 
details  which  are  only  learned  in  committees. 

Garfield  has  fairly  won  a  distinguished  reputation  in  both 
ways.  In  his  speeches,  which  are  familiar  to  all  our  people,  he 
has  vindicated  the  right  to  the  leadership  of  his  party  in  the 
House,  which  was  accorded  to  him  by  common  consent  when 
Mr.  Elaine  left  the  House.  In  the  arduous  duties  devolving 
upon  him  as  a  member  of  most  important  committees  he  has 
won  the  high  respect  of  his  fellow-members  of  successive  Con 
gresses,  without  regard  to  their  party  predilections. 

His  first  assignment,  when  he  entered  Congress,  to  committee 
work,  was  a  very  natural  one.  Coming  fresh  from  the  army,  and 
from  a  position  requiring  as  much  knowledge  of  army  organiza 
tion,  needs  and  other  details  as  was  required  of  the  commanding 
general  whose  chief  of  staff  he  was,  his  services  were  at  once 
sought  for  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  then  by  far  the 
most  important  in  the  House.  No  member  of  that  committee 
contributed  so  much  to  its  knowledge  of  the  actual  condition 
and  needs  of  the  army.  His  reports  were  models  of  fulness 
and  accuracy,  in  dealing  with  the  various  questions  that 
before  the  committee. 


122  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

The  constitution  of  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  in  the 
38th  Congress  was  as  follows,  the  names  being  given  in  the 
order  of  precedence  : 

ROBERT  C.  SCHENCK,  of  Ohio. 
JOHN  F.  FARNSWORTH,  of  Illinois. 
GEORGE  H.  YEAMAN,  of  Kentucky. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
BENJAMIN  LOAN,  of  Missouri. 
MOSES  F.  ODELL,  of  New  York. 
HENRY  C.  DEMING,  of  Connecticut. 
F.  W.  KELLOGG,  of  Michigan. 
ARCHIBALD  MCALLISTER,  of  Pennsylvania. 

It  was  somewhat  of  a  surprise  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House 
when  the  39th  Congress  assembled  in  1865,  and  Garfield  was  asked 
by  the  Speaker  if  he  had  any  request  to  make  about  the  com 
position  of  committees,  to  hear  Garfield  say  that  he  had  but  one 
request,  and  that  was  that  he  should  be  left  off  from  the  Military 
Committee  and  assigned  to  that  of  Ways  and  Means  ;  and  yet  the 
former  committee  had  before  it  the  great  work  of  reorganizing  the 
army,  and  other  difficult  and  important  questions,  involving  the 
exercise  of  a  great  deal  of  power  and  wisdom.  But  Garfield's 
vigorous  and  prescient  mind  was  quick  to  anticipate  and  leap 
into  the  new  emergencies  that  were  beginning  to  be  fore 
shadowed,  and  he  wanted  to  put  himself  in  the  place  where  the 
line  of  his  duty  would  put  him  most  completely  in  the  way  of 
preparation.  It  was  his  theory  that  the  great  coming  question 
was  that  of  finance,  and  he  was  determined  to  be  prepared  for 
its  discussion.  From  that  early  period  in  his  Congressional 
career  dates  the  beginning  of  that  wonderful  growth  in  the  mas 
tery  of  all  the  questions  of  detail  about  tariff,  taxation,  currency, 
and  the  public  debt,  which  has  marked  all  his  public  utter 
ances. 

The  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  in  the  39th  Congress  con 
sisted  of  the  following  able  statesmen  : 

JUSTIN  S.  MORRILL,  of  Vermont. 
SAMUEL  HOOPER,  of  Massachusetts. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  123 

JAMES  BROOKS,  of  New  York. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
JOHN  WENTWORTH,  of  Illinois. 
ROSCOE  CONKLING,  of  New  York. 
JAMES  R.  MOORHEAD,  of  Pennsylvania. 
WILLIAM  B.  ALLISON,  of  Iowa. 
JOHN  HOGAN,  of  Missouri. 

In  the  40th  Congress  there  was  a  just  recognition  of  his  ser 
vices  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  in  the 
38th  Congress,  by  his  appointment  as  chairman  of  that  commit 
tee  by  the  Speaker.  The  committee  was  constituted  as  follows  : 

JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio/ 
WILLIAM  A.  PILE,  of  Missouri. 
JOHN  H.  KETCHAM,  of  New  York. 
HENRY  D.  WASHBURN,  of  Indiana, 
GRENVILLE  M.  DODGE,  of  Iowa. 
GREEN  B.  RAUM,  of  Illinois. 
ISAAC  R.  HAWKINS,  of  Tennessee. 
CHARLES  SITGREAVES,  of  New  Jersey. 
BENJAMIN  R.  POWER,  of  Pennsylvania. 

In  the  41st  Congress  the  Speaker  made  recognition  both  of 
the  acknowledged  ability  and  research  of  Garfield  in  regard  to 
all  the  financial  questions,  and  of  the  newly  acquired  importance 
of  the  Committee  on  Banking  and  Currency,  by  making  him  its 
chairman,  The  committee  consisted  of  the  following  mem 
bers  : 

JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 

JOHN  LYNCH,  of  Maine. 

NORMAN  B.  JUDD,  of  Illinois. 

JOHN  COBURN,  of  Indiana. 

WORTHINGTON  C.  SMITH,  of  Vermont. 

JOHN  B.  PACKER,  of  Pennsylvania. 

ISRAEL  G.  LASH,  of  North  Carolina. 

SAMUEL  S.  Cox,  of  New  York. 

THOMAS  S.  JONES,  of  Kentucky. 

HORATIO  C.  BURCHARD,  of  Illinois,, 

He  was  also  appointed  on  the  Select  Committee  on  the  Ninth 
Census,  in  which  he  occupied  the  second  place,  although  the 


124  THE   LIFE   OP   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

great  burden  of  shaping  the  work  of  the  committee  fell  upon 
him,  at  the  request  of  the  Speaker,  who  desired  him  to  yield  the 
place  out  of  courtesy  to  William  B.  Stokes,  of  Tennessee.  The 
labors  devolved  on  this  committee  were  very  arduous,  and  the 
results  of  the.  *vork,  and  especially  of  General  Garfield's  direct 
ing  share  in  it,  can  be  seen  in  the  official  reports.  No  preced 
ing  committee  on  this  subject  had  ever  made  such  an  exhaustive 
and  scientific  presentation  of  the  ends  to  be  achieved  by  a  na 
tional  census,  or  of  the  means  by  which  they  could  most  readily 
and  certainly  be  effected.  The  committee  was  composed  as 
follows : 

WILLIAM  B.  STOKES,  of  Tennessee. 

JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 

NATHANIEL,  P.  BANKS,  of  Massachusetts. 

WILLIAM  B.  ALLISON,  of  Iowa. 

ADDISON  J.  LAFLIN,  of  New  York. 

SHELBY  M.  CULLOM,  of  Illinois. 

MARTIN  W.  WILKINSON,  of  Minnesota. 

RICHARD  J.  HALDEMAN,  of  Pennsylvania. 

JOHN  G.  SCHUMACHER,  of  New  York. 

He  was  also  appointed  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Rules, 
whicli  is  always  made  up  with  especial  reference  to  the  parlia 
mentary  knowledge  of  its  members.  The  committee  was  con 
stituted  as  follows  : 

The  Speaker  (JAMES  G.  BLAINE). 
NATHANIEL  P.  BANKS,  of  Massachusetts. 
THOMAS  W.  FERRY,  of  Michigan. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
JAMES  BROOKS,  of  New  York. 

In  the  42d  Congress  Garfield  was  made  chairman  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Appropriations,  on  which  had  been  devolved  the 
most  responsible  duties  and  the  greatest  powers  previously  as 
signed  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means.  The  committee 
was  constituted  as  follows  : 

JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
AARON  A.  SARGENT,  of  California. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKFI^LD.  125 

OLIVER  J.  DICKEY,  of  Pennsylvania. 
FREEMAN  CLARKE,  of  New  York. 
FRANK  W.  PALMER,  of  Iowa. 
EUGENE  HALE,  of  Maine. 
WILLIAM  E.  NIBLACK,  of  Indiana. 
SAMUEL  S.  MARSHALL,  of  Illinois. 
THOMAS  SWANN,  of  Maryland. 

Garfield  was  continued  on  the  Committee  on  Rules,  which  con 
sisted  of 

The  Speaker  (JAMES  G.  ELAINE). 
NATHANIEL  P.  BANKS,  of  Massachusetts. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
SAMUEL  S.  Cox,  of  New  York. 
SAMUEL  J.  RANDALL,  of  Pennsylvania. 

In  the  43d  Congress  Garfield  was  reappointed  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  which  consisted  of  the  fol 
lowing  members  : 

JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 

EUGENE  HALE,  of  Maine. 

WILLIAM  A.  WHEELER,  of  New  York. 

CHARLES  O'NEILL,  of  Pennsylvania. 

HENRY  H.  STARKWEATHER,  of  Connecticut. 

WILLIAM  LOUGHRIDGE,  of  Iowa. 

JAMES  N.  TYNER,  of  Indiana. 

ISAAC  C.  PARKER,  of  Missouri. 

SAMUEL  S.  MARSHALL,  of  Illinois. 

THOMAS  SWANN,  of  Maryland. 

JOHN  HANCOCK,  of  Texas. 

As  during  two  previous  Congresses,  he  was  appointed  on  the 
Committee  on  Rules,  which  consisted  of 

j 

The  Speaker  (JAMES  G.  ELAINE).  . 
HORACE  MAYNARD,  of  Tennessee. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
SAMUEL  S.  Cox,  of  New  York. 
SAMUEL  J.  RANDALL,  of  Pennsylvania. 

In  the  44th  Congress  Garfield  was  placed  on  the  Committee 


126  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

on  Ways  and  Means.  As  the  House  was  Democratic,  he  was 
naturally  placed  below  all  the  Democrats  on  the  committee, 
and  below  William  D.  Kelley,  who  was  much  his  senior  in  Con 
gressional  service.  The  committee  was  constituted  as  follows  : 

WILLIAM  R.  MORRISON,  of  Illinois. 
FERNANDO  WOOD,  of  New  York. 
JOHN  HANCOCK,  of  Texas. 
PHILIP  L.  THOMAS,  of  Maryland. 
BENJAMIN  H.  HILL,  of  Georgia. 
CHESTER  W.  CHAPIN,  of  Massachusetts. 
J.  RANDOLPH  TUCKER,  of  Virginia. 
WILLIAM  D.  KELLEY,  of  Pennsylvania. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
HORATIO  C.  BURCHARD,  of  Illinois. 
HENRY  WATTERSON,  of  Kentucky. 

The  last-named  only  filled  a  vacancy  toward  the  end  of  this 
Congress,  and  his  position  on  the  committee  was  probably  due  to 
his  own  request. 

In  the  45th  Congress  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  con- 
sisted  of  the  following  members  : 

FERNANDO  WOOD,  of  New  York. 
J.  RANDOLPH  TUCKER,  of  Virginia. 
MILTON  SAYLER,  of  Ohio. 
WILLIAM  M.  ROBBINS,  of  North  Carolina. 
HENRY  It.  HARRIS,  of  Georgia. 
RANDALL  L.  GIBSON,  of  Louisiana. 
JAMES  PHILLIPS,  of  Connecticut. 
WILLIAM  D.  KELLEY,  of  Pennsylvania. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
HORATIO  C.  BURCHARD,  of  Illinois. 
NATHANIEL  P.  BANKS,  of  Massachusetts. 

The  Committee  on  Rules  in  this  Congress  consisted  of 

The  Speaker  (SAMUEL  J.  RANDALL). 
ALEXANDER  II.  STEPHENS,  of  Georgia. 
MILTON  SAYLER,  of  Ohio. 
NATHANIEL  P.  BANKS,  of  Massachusetts. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD.  127 

In  the  46th  Congress  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  con 
sisted  of 

FERNANDO  WOOD,  of  New  York. 
J.  RANDOLPH  TUCKER,  of  Virginia. 
RANDALL  L.  GIBSON,  of  Louisiana. 
JAMES  PHILLIPS,  of  Connecticut. 
WILLIAM  R.  MORRISON,  of  Illinois. 
R.  Q.  MILLS,  of  Texas. 
JOHN  S.  CARLISLE,  of  Kentucky. 
WILLIAM  H.  FELTON,  of  Georgia. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
WILLIAM  D.  KELLEY,  of  Pennsylvania. 
OMAR  D.  CONGER,  of  Michigan. 
WILLIAM  P.  FRYE,  of  Maine. 
MARTIN  H.  DWINNELL,  of  Minnesota. 

The  Committee  on  Rules  consisted  of  : 

The  Speaker  (SAMUEL  J.  RANDALL). 
ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS,  of  Georgia. 
JOSEPH  C.  BLACKBURN,  of  Kentucky. 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  of  Ohio. 
WILLIAM  P.  FRYE,  of  Maine. 

A  good  conception  of  the  thoroughness  with  which  Garfield 
discharged  his  onerous  duties  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Appropriations  may  be  formed  from  reading  the  speech  which 
he  made  on  "  Revenues  and  Expenditures,"  on  the  5th  of 
March,  1874.  With  a  pretty  thorough  knowledge  of  all  the  im 
portant  speeches  that  have  been  made  in  Congress  since  the 
foundation  of  the  Government,  I  do  not  believe  that  there  was 
ever  before  made  in  that  body  a  presentation  of  the  philosophy 
and  methods  of  adjusting  the  revenues  and  appropriations  of 
the  Government  which  covered  so  much  ground  in  so  brief  a 
space,  or  which  disclosed  so  clearly  the  principles  on  which  ap 
propriations  should  be  made. 

At  the  outset  he  announced  his  disagreement  with  the  assump 
tion  implied  in  the  common  maxim  that  we  should  "  cut  our 
vgarment  according  to  our  cloth,"  which  he  admitted  was  cor 
rect  as  applied  to  private  affairs,  but  not  at  all  applicable  to  the 


128  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

wants  of  nations.  "Our  national  expenditures,"  said  he, 
"  should  be  measured  by  the  real  interests  and  the  proper  needs 
of  the  Government.  We  should  cut  our  garment  so  as  to  fit  the 
person  to  be  clothed.  If  he*  be  a  giant,  we  must  provide  cloth 
sufficient  for  a  fitting  garment." 

"  It  was  the  effort  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations,"  he 
said,  "  to  find  what  are  the  real  and  vital  necessities  of  the  Gov 
ernment  ;  to  find  what  amount  of  money  will  suffice  to  meet  all 
its  honorable  obligations,  to  carry  on  all  its  necessary  and  essen 
tial  functions,  and  to  keep  alive  those  public  enterprises  which 
the  country  desires  its  Government  to  undertake  and  accomplish. " 

He  regarded  it  as  unfortunate  that  the  work  of  appropria 
tions  was  not  connected  directly  with  the  work  of  taxation, 
in  which  case  "  the  necessity  of  taxation  would  be  a  constant 
check  upon  extravagance,  and  the  practice  of  economy  would 
promise  as  its  immediate  result  the  pleasure  of  reducing  taxa 
tion." 

As  to  the  effect  of  taxation  on  the  people,  lie  said  that  "  they 
willingly  bear  the  burdens  of  taxation  when  they  see  that  their 
contributions  are  honestly  and  wisely  expended  to  maintain  the 
government  of  theu*  choice,  and  to  accomplish  those  objects 
which  they  consider  necessary  for  the  public  welfare.  So  far 
us  the  Government  is  concerned,  the  soundness  of  its  financial 
affairs  depends  upon  the  annual  surplus  of  its  revenues  over  ex 
penditures.  A  steady  and  constant  revenue,  drawn  from  sources 
that  represent  the  prosperity  of  the  nation,  a  revenue  that  grows 
with  the  growth  of  national  wealth,  and  is  so  adjusted  to 
the  expenditures  that  a  constant  and  considerable  surplus  is 
annually  left  in  the  treasury  above  all  the  necessary  current  de 
mands — a  surplus  that  keeps  the  treasury  strong,  that  holds  it 
above  the  fear  of  sudden  panic,  that  makes  it  impregnable 
against  all  private  combinations,  that  makes  it  a  terror  to  stock 
jobbing  and  gold-gambling— this  is  financial  health." 

Reviewing  the  financial  history  of  the  Government,  he  called 
attention  to  the  history  and  causes  of  deficits  and  of  surpluses, 
and  then  passed  to  the  wonderful  history  of  the  reduction  of 


THE   LIFE   OF  GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  129 

taxes  since  the  war,  and  the  effects  of  the  reduction  of  revenue 
on  this  surplus. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  portions  of  this  thorough  exam 
ination  into  the  workings  of  our  system  of  appropriations  and 
expenditures  was  an  analysis  of  expenditures  for  the  preceding 
fiscal  year,  from  which  at  a  glance  any  intelligent  reader  could 
ascertain  precisely  the  amounts  expended  for  every  department 
of  the  Government — for  the  maintenance  or  construction  of  pub 
lic  works,  for  interest  on  our  funded  debt,  and  for  all  the  vari 
ous  other  objects  of  Government  outlay.  These  expenditures 
he  grouped  in  different  classifications,  with  the  usual  analytic 
ability  of  his  discussions  of  such  questions,  and  took  up  in  detail 
the  objects  in  whose  support  retrenchment  was  practicable  and 
advisable.  Three  classes  of  expenditures  called  for  his  special 
attention,  and  his  policy  toward  each  of  these  illustrates  his 
views  of  wise  economy  and  expenditure.  As  to  the  expendi 
tures  on  rivers  and  harbors,  he  called  attention  to  the  fact 
"that  in  fifteen  of  the  last  thirty-four  years  not  a  dollar  was 
appropriated  for  rivers  and  harbors  in  the  United  States.  Our 
friends  on  the  other  side  of  the  House,  when  they  were  in 
power,  believed  in  the  doctrine  that  Congress  had  no  right  to 
make  internal  improvements,  and  in  fifteen  of  their  years  of 
power  our  docks  and  piers  were  rotting  and  our  harbors  were 
filling  up,  because  the  theory  of  non-improvement  left  them  to 
perish.  More  than  seventy-five  per  cent  of  all  that  has  ever 
been  appropriated  to  open  our  rivers  and  clear  out  'our  harbors 
and  make  a  highway  for  commerce  on  our  coasts  and  upon  our 
inland  lakes  and  rivers  has  been  appropriated  since  the  war  by 
the  party  now  in  power.1' 

These  works,  he  said,  he  named  only  to  praise  them.  "  They 
are  carried  on  under  the  War  Department,  and  no  man,  I  be 
lieve,  has  ever  charged  corruption  in  the  expenditure  of  the 
money.  But  it  is  one  of  that  class  of  expenditures  that  can 

in  part  be  postponed,  that  need  not  be  done  in  a  year.     It  is  well 
that  enough  has  been  done  to  make  it  possible  for  us  to  open 


130  THE    LIFE   OF    GEN.  JAMES   A.   GAEFIELD. 

our  internal  avenues  of  commerce  as  the  growth  of  trade  re 
quires.  ' ' 

As  to  the  expenditures  for  the  maintenance  of  our  light 
house  system  he  was  equally  liberal.  Said  he  :  "I  look 
upon  it  as  one  of  the  wonders  of  our  early  history  that 
during  the  first  three  months  of  the  life  of  the  first  Con 
gress  our  fathers  struck  out  on  a  new  line,  unknown  in  the 
history  of  legislation,  when  they  declared  in  one  simple  act  that 
the  light  that  gleamed  from  every  Pharos  on  our  shores  should 
be  free  to  the  ships  and  sailors  of  all  nations.  Until  recently 
the  United  States  has  stood  absolutely  alone  in  allowing  the  na 
tions  of  the  world  to  have  the  benefit  of  lights  without  charge. 
I  always  feel  a  keen  sense  of  satisfaction  when  I  am  permitted 
to  aid  in  making  appropriations  to  keep  these  lights  burning  on 
our  shores.  The  life-saving  stations  which  have  been  added  are 
expenses  of  the  same  character.  I  would  do  nothing  to  cripple 
these  great  interests." 

But  as  to  another  branch  of  public  works,  that  of  the  con 
struction  of  public  buildings,  he  was  as  free  in  his  condemna 
tion  of  haste  and  extravagance  as  he  had  been  of  praise  in  re 
gard  to  the  two  preceding  classes. 

A  late  illustration  of  the  grasp  of  Garfield's  study  of 
the  revenues  and  expenditures  of  the  Government  which 
was  prosecuted  in  the  course  of  his  service  on  the  Committee 
on  Appropriations  may  be  found  in  an  article  of  his  in  the 
North  American  Review  for  June,  1879.  In  that  exceedingly 
clear  and  readable  article  he  quoted  a  passage  from  a  speech 
which  he  made  on  revenues  and  expenditures  in  the  House 
in  1872,  which,  for  the  interest  and  attractiveness  with  which 
he  succeeded  in  investing  a  subject  that  is  generally  regarded 
as  forbidding  by  reason  of  its  dryness  and  technicalities,  may 
well  be  compared  with  that  brilliant  budget  of  Gladstone's 
earlier  parliamentary  career,  which  has  been  so  famous.  In 
this  speech  he  gave  his  philosophy  of  expenditures  and  appro 
priations,  and  prophesied,  among  other  things,  at  what  time  in 
our  history  we  could  probably  reach  a  peace  level  of  expendi- 


THE   LIFE   OF    GEK.   JAMES    A.   GARFIELD.  131 

tures  after  the  war — at  what  time  we  could  get  down  so  low 
that  we  could  not  get  any  lower,  and  that  the  natural  growth 
of  the  country  would  require  a  revival  of  trade  and  rise  of 
prices  ;  and  in  forecasting  the  time  he  took  a  very  large  risk  in 
saying  that  "  at  a  certain  period  so  far  ahead  it  will  be  found 
that  we  shall  touch  bottom  on  the  scale  of  reduction,  and  at 
that  time  we  shall  probably  get  our  interest  down  to  such 
a  figure,  and  our  annual  expenditures  down  to  such  a  figure, 
and  thereupon  and  thereafter  the  growth  of  the  country  will 
make  the  peace  increase  starting  up  again  necessary."  The 
period  he  had  fixed  on  was  about  the  end  of  1876.  In  his 
North  American  article  he  showed  that  his  only  mistake  was 
that  this  revival  came  about  a  year  later  than  the  time  which  he 
predicted  in  1872,  and  the  figures  were  almost  identical.  This 
prediction  was  not  a  mere  speculative  theory,  but  was  on  the 
basis  of  an  immense  induction  of  historical  facts,  which  con 
vinced  him  that  the  expenditures  of  a  war  could  not  be  reduced 
so  as  to  strike  a  peace  level  short  of  a  period  twice  the  length 
of  the  war  itself  after  it.  He  showed  that  this  was  the  case  in 
England's  wars,  and  that  it  was  so  in  all  our  wars  from  the  be 
ginning  ;  that  the  expenditures  reached  their  height,  of  course, 
at  the  close  of  the  war,  then  they  began  to  drop  gradually  down 
an  inclined  plane  until  they  struck  the  new  level  of  peace, 
where  the  rise  began  again  gradually,  and  this  was  arrived  at  in 
a  period  twice  as  long  after  a  war  as  the  length  of  the  war  it^ 
self.  Our  war  was  substantially  five  years  long,  ending  finan 
cially  in  1866.  Add  ten  years,  and  the  period  of  decline  fixed 
on  the  basis  of  this  calculation  would  extend  to  1876  ;  and  he 
said  in  his  speech  in  1872,  "  We  shall  reach  our  peace  level 
then."  He  made  an  analysis,  showing  what  were  our  war  ex 
penditures  and  those  resulting  from  the  war,  and  what  the 
peace  expenses  were,  proving  that  the  peace  expenses  would 
increase  all  the  time,  growing  with  the  growth  of  the  country, 
and  that  the  war  expenses  would  decrease.  There  were  two 
processes  ;  but  the  war  expenditures  were  so  great  that  their 
decrease  would  be  more  rapid  than  the  peace  increase  ;  and  after 


132  THE   LIFE    OF    GEX.  JAMES    A.   GAKFIELD. 

a  while  those  two  lines  would  meet,  and  the  sloping  incline  of 
peace  would  come. 

Besides  the  work  devolved  upon  him  in  the  regular  and 
special  committees  to  which  I  have  referred,  Garfield  has  been 
called  on  from  time  to  time  to  serve  on  special  committees  re 
quiring  an  unusual  amount  of  labor,  care,  and  judgment  ;  and 
special  occasions  of  great  magnitude  have  given  to  the  work  of 
the  regular  committees  to  which  he  belonged  unusual  responsi 
bilities  and  labors.  For  instance,  the  investigation  into  the 
causes  of  the  gold  panic,  which  was  ordered  by  the  House  in 
December,  1869,  was  devolved  on  the  Committee  on  Banking 
and  Currency,  of  which  he  was  chairman.  It  is  probable  that 
no  special  subject  of  investigation  by  a  Congressional  committee 
attracted  more  universal  attention  at  the  time  than  did  this, 
and  for  very  obvious  reasons.  Charges  had  been  made  calcu 
lated  to  create  the  impression  that  there  had  been  some  sort  of 
connection  between  the  gigantic  and  reckless  operations  of 
New  York  gamblers  in  gold  and  the  action  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States  in  regard  to  the  selling  of  gold.  There  were 
few  intelligent  people  who  gave  to  these  charges  any  sort  of 
credence  ;  but  there  was  a  sufficient  array  of  circumstances  to 
give  a  basis  for  a  swarm  of  calumnies  likely  to  affect  seriously 
the  reputation  of  the  President,  and  of  course  to  impair  the 
respect  in  which  our  Government  and  institutions  were  held 
abroad.  It  was  deemed  advisable,  therefore,  that  the  transac 
tions  which  had  occasioned  so  much  comment  and  scandal  should 
be  rigorously  investigated  and  the  bottom  facts  brought  to  the 
surface.  The  conduct  of  this  investigation  by  General  Garfield 
was  the  subject  of  universal  admiration  at  the  time,  and  of  most 
complimentary  comments  by  the  press  of  New  York,  particularly 
the  tact  and  adroitness  and  firmness  with  which  he  managed 
and  drew  out  that  most  remarkable  and  irrepressible  of  wit 
nesses,  Mr.  James  Fisk,  Jr.  The  results  of  the  most  thorough 
inquiry  were  embodied  in  the  report  of  the  committee,  and  its 
statements  of  all  of  the  essential  facts  developed  by  their  inquiry 
were  so  clear  and  satisfactory  that  no  question  has  arisen  since 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.   JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  133 

as  to  the  accuracy  of  the  committee's  findings.  The  reputation 
of  the  Executive  was  vindicated,  while  the  nefariousness  and 
recklessness  of  the  conspiracy  were  exposed  in  the  most  striking 
manner. 

(Oarfldd  to  Col.  A.  F.  Rockwell.} 

HIRAM,  OHIO,  August  30,  1869. 

It  seems  as  though  each  year  added  more  to  the  work  that  falls  to  my  share. 
This  season  I  have  the  main  weight  of  the  census  bill  and  the  report  to  carry  t 
and  the  share  of  the  Ohio  campaign  that  falls  to  me,  and  in  addition  to  all  this 
I  am  running  in  debt  and  building  a hou^e in  Washington.  On  looking  over  I 
found  I  had  paid  out  over  $5,000,  since  I  first  went  to  Congress,  for  rent  alone,  and 
all  this  is  a  dead  loss  ;  so,  finding  an  old  staff -officer  (Maj.  D.  G.  Swaim),  I  nego 
tiated  enough  to  enable  me  to  get  a  lot  on  the  corner  of  Thirteenth  and  1  Streets 
north,  opposite  to  Franklin  Square,  and  I  have  got  a  house  three  quarters  done. 
It  may  be  a  losing  business,  but  I  hope  I  shall  be  able  to  sell  it  when  I  am  done 
with  it,  so  as  to  save  myself  and  the  rent. 


(Garfleld  to  Col.  A.  F.  Xockwell.) 

HIRAM,  OHIO,  August  6, 1870. 

I  have  at  last  reached  home  in  the  green  fields  and  pure  air  of  the  country, 
.  and  for  the  first  time  in  many  months  have  a  few  days  of  comparative  rest  now 
before  the  opening  of  the  fall  campaign. 

My  work  during  the  last  Congressional  year  has  been  harder  than  ever  be 
fore.  I  gave  eighty  days'  hard  work  last  summer  and  fall  to  the  census,  and, 
though  I  carried  my  bill  successfully  through  the  House,  it  failed  in  the  Senate. 
Then  I  spent  forty  days  on  the  Gold  Panic  Investigation  and  Report,  nearly  all 
the  work  of  which  I  did.  Then  I  gave  three  or  four  weeks'  hard  work  to  the 
Tariff  Bill,  and  more  than,  that  amount  to  the  Currency  Bill,  which  I  had  charge  of 
and  which  created  a  long  and  strong  combat.  Add  to  this  all  the  usual  outside 
work  and  two  cases  in.  the  Supreme  Court,  one  of  which  I  argued  and  won,  and 
you  will  see  that  it  filled  my  days  and  many  of  my  nights  with  about  as  close 
grubbing  as  I  was  capable  of  performing.  On  the  whole,  I  have  done  as  much  as 
I  had  any  reason  to  hope  I  should. 

I  was  very  much  obliged  for  your  discussion  of  the  Indian  affairs.  You  can 
see  how  nearly  impossible  it  is  for  a  member  of  Congress,  nearly  u  thousand 
miles  away  from  the  scene  of  Indian  events,  and  knowing  nothing  but  what  he 
learns  from  vague  and  contradictory  reports,  to  understand  the  real  situation, 
and  to  provide  wise  and  efficient  means  for  managing  a  subject  so  difficult  and 
so  impossible  to  handle  by  general  laws  or  regulations.  I  have  from  the  first 
been  in  favor  of  the  transfer  of  the  Indian  Bureau  to  the  War  Department ;  but 
the  Piegan  massacre  and  the  personal  quarrel  of  which  you  speak  prevented  the 
transfer.  I  twice  got  the  bill  through  the  House.  I  shall  take  the  liberty  to 
write  to  Secretary  Cox  and  quote  Some  passages  from  your  letter. 


134  THE   LIFE  OF  GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

(Garfield  to  Col.  A.  F.  Eockwtt. ) 

WASHINGTON,  December  13, 1871. 

I  am  now  up  to  my  eyes  in  the  work  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations, 
of  which  I  am  Chairman,  though  I  do  manage  to  steal  a  little  time  from  work 
and  sleep,  almost  every  day,  to  read  over  carefully  a  few  lines  from  Horace,  to 
keep  the  breath  of  classical  life  in  my  body. 

(Garfield  to  Col.  A.  F.  Rockwell.) 

WASHINGTON,  March  5, 1875. 

At  last  the  long,  hard  struggle  is  over,  and  I  lie  stranded,  like  a  ship  ashore, 
•water-logged  and  shattered  by  the  battle  of  wind  and  waves. 

You  will  perhaps  think  I  am  always  saying  the  same  thing  at  the  end  of  a 
session  ;  but,  I  am  sure,  no  other  fi\'e  days  of  my  Congressional  life  have  been 
BO  crowded  with  heavy  work  as  those  just  ended.  Forty -eight  hours  ago  six  of 
my  appropriation  bills-  were  in  peril.  Two  of  them  had  not  passed  the  House 
the  first  time,  and  the  others  were  in  the  Senate  or  in  Conference  Committees. 
They  were  all  passed  in  good  shape  at  half-past  eleven  A.M.  yesterday. 

The  amount  of  intellectual  work  I  have  done,  and  the  physical  strain  which 
has  accompanied  it,  is  something  more  than  everything  I  have  ever  done  before 


(Garfield  to  Col.  A.  F.  Pockwdl.) 

WASHINGTON,  December  4, 1875. 

The  committees  have  not  yet  been  announced,  but  you  will  probably  see 
them  before  this  reaches  yon.  I  have  followed  rather  austerely  the  rule  of  self- 
respect,  and  have  kept  aloof  from  all  combinations.  I  have  asked  nothing,  nor 
have  T  permitted  my  friends  to  ask  anything  for  me.  I  was  gratified  and 
surprised  when  the  Republican  members  of  the  Ohio  delegation  united  in  a 
unanimous  expression  of  their  desire  that  I  should  be  appointed  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  but  I  asked  them  not  to  make  any  requests 
for  me. 


CHAPTER  m 

THE   EXTRA   SESSION   OF    1879. 

No  Republican  leader  of  the  House  ever  had  devolved  upon 
him  a  responsibility  so  great  or  a  duty  so  arduous  as  were 
thrown  uponGarfield  by  the  extra  session  of  Congress,  in  1879, 
called  within  three  weeks  after  the  adjournment  of  the  regular 
session,  on  the  4th  of  March,  which  left  the  Executive  and 
Legislative  branches  of  the  Government  in  a  deadlock  of  un 
yielding  antagonism,  and  all  the  branches  of  the  Government 
without  the  supplies  essential  to  their  maintenance.  In  fact,  it 
may  be  said  that  no  such  exigency  was  ever  before  presented  to 
any  leader  of  the  House.  Before  that  time  Congress  had  never 
undertaken  to  condition  the  performance  of  its  duty  to  support 
the  Government  on  the  acquiescence  of  the  Executive  in  the 
demands  of  the  former.  Legislation,  it  is  true,  had  been  in 
corporated  in  appropriation  bills,  which  practically  left  the 
President  little  discretion.  But  these  legislative  "  riders"  did 
not  amount  to  a  formal  and  formidable  declaration  of  the  in 
tention  of  Congress  to  coerce  the  Executive.  And  this  was 
precisely  the  appalling  situation  which  was  presented  when  the 
winter  session  of  1878-9  came  to  its  unsatisfactory  close.  In  the 
stormy  debates  which  preceded  this  deadlock,  Garfield,  as  the 
responsible  leader  of  the  Republican  minority,  had  fairly  offered 
to  the  majority  not  so  much  a  compromise  of  the  principles 
involved  in  the  legislation  which  the  majority  attempted  to 
force  the  Executive  to  accept,  as  a  Conservative  Republican  re 
vision,  adapted  to  the  times,  of  the  legislation  which  had  been 
put  upon  the  statute-books  in  periods  of  essentially  different 
character.  The  very  fairness  of  his  proposition  and  the  broad 
statesmanship  which  he  displayed  in  the  closing  debates  of  that 
session  had  alienated  from  him,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  many 


136  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

Republican  members  of  Congress  with  whom  he  had  been  in 
most  cordial  co-operation,  and  who  afterward  heartily  rallied 
under  his  leadership. 

From  this  fact,  and  from  the  lack  of  intimate  relations  be 
tween  several  Republican  leaders  in  Congress  and  the  President, 
the  duties  imposed  on  Garfield  in  the  extra  session  were  such 
as  demanded  in  their  performance  the  most  sagacious  judgment, 
and  frequently  the  highest  degree  of  moral  courage.  No  leader 
of  the  party  in  either  branch  of  Congress  at  any  period  was 
ever  before  placed  in  such  a  peculiar  and  delicate  position.  But 
he  did  not  shrink  from  the  straightforward  performance  of  his 
duty,  and  its  difficulty  not  only  nerved  him  to  greater  efforts  to 
maintain  what  he  regarded  as  the  only  tenable  position  on 
which  his  party  could  stand,  but  what  was  far  more  important 
than  this,  to  maintain  the  constitutional  balance  of  power  be 
tween  the  three  departments  of  the  Government,  whose  contin 
uance  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  preservation  of  our  institu 
tions.  His  speech  in  the  House  on  the  29th  of  March  shows 
the  solemnity  of  his  impression,  of  the  magnitude  and  perils  of 
the  crisis  through  which  he  was  to  pilot  the  way  to  safety  with 
honor.  He  did  not  shrink  at  the  outset  from  stating  what  was 
really  the  most  terrible  indictment  of  the  policy  of  the  majority 
in  Congress.  Said  he  : 

"  MR.  CHAIRMAN  :  I  have  no  hope  of  being  able  to  convey  tb 
the  members  of  this  House  my  own  conviction  of  the  very  great 
gravity  and  solemnity  of  the  crisis  which  this  decision  of  the 
Chair  and  of  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  has  brought  upon 
this  country.  I  wish  I  could  be  proved  a  false  prophet  in  ref 
erence  to  the  result  of  this  action.  I  wish  T  could  be  over 
whelmed  with  the  proof  that  I  am  utterly  mistaken  in  my 
views.  But  no  view  I  have  ever  taken  has  entered  more  deeply 
and  more  seriously  into  my  convictions  than  this  :  that  this 
House  has  to-day  resolved  to  enter  upon  a  revolution  against  the 
Constitution  and  Government  of  the  United  States.  I  do  not 
know  that  that  intention  exists  in  the  minds  of  half  the  Repre 
sentatives  who  occupy  the  other  side  of  this  hall.  I  hope  it 
does  not.  I  am  ready  to  believe  it  does  not  exist  to  any  large 
extent.  But  I  mean  to  say  the  consequence  of  the  programme 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  13? 

just  adopted,  if  persisted  in,  is  nothing  less  than  the  total  sub 
version  of  this  Government." 

Then  he  reviewed  the  history  of  the  struggle  in  the  preceding 
session,  and  gave  the  history  of  the  formation  of  the  issue  be 
tween  the  two  parties— the  demands  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
resistance  on  the  other — and  placed  the  grounds  of  his  resist 
ance  on  the  broad  principles  of  the  Constitution.  He  pointed 
out  several  ways  in  which  our  Government  could  be  destroyed 
without  armed  revolution.  For  example,  by  a  refusal  on  the 
part  of  the  people  to  elect  Representatives  to  Congress  ;  or  a 
majority  of  one  branch  or  the  other  of  Congress  might,  on  the 
first  day  of  the  session,  vote  to  adjourn  on  the  hour  of  meeting, 
and  continue  to  vote  so  at  every  session  during  the  two  years  of 
the  existence  of  that  Congress  ;  or  a  majority  of  either  body 
might  vote  down  every  bill  to  support  the  Government  by  ap 
propriations.  All  these  methods  of  destroying  the  Government 
are  permitted  by  the  Constitution,  because  the  people  "  being 
themselves  the  creators  of  all  the  agencies  and  forces  to  execute 
their  own  will,  and  choosing  from  themselves  their  Representa 
tives  to  express  that  will  in  the  forms  of  law,  it  would  have  been 
like  a  suggestion  of  suicide  to  assume  that  any  of  these  great 
voluntary  powers  would  be  turned  against  the  life  of  the  Gov 
ernment.  Public  opinion — that  great  ocean  of  thought  from 
whose  height  all  heights  and  all  depths  are  measured — was 
trusted  as  a  power  amply  able,  and  always  willing,  to  guard  all 
the  approaches  on  that  side  of  the  Constitution  from  any  as 
sault  on  the  life  of  the  nation.1' 

"  Up  to  this  hour,"  he  continued,  "  our  sovereign  has  never 
failed  us.  There  has  never  been  such  a  refusal  to  exercise  those 
primary  functions  of  sovereignty  as  either  to  endanger  or  crip 
ple  the  Government  ;  nor  have  the  majority  of  the  representa 
tives  of  that  sovereign  in  either  house  of  Congress  ever  before 
announced  their  purpose  to  use  their  voluntary  powers  for  its 
destruction.  And  now,  for  the  first  time  in  our  history,  and  I 
will  add  for  the  first  time  for  at  least  two  centuries  in  the  his 
tory  of  any  English-speaking  nation,  it  is  proposed  and  insisted 


138  THE   LIFE   OF  GEN".    JAMES  A.    GARFIELD. 

that  these  voluntary  powers  shall  be  used  for  the  destruction 
of  the  Government.  I  want  it  distinctly  understood  that 
the  proposition  which  I  read  at  the  beginning  of  my  remarks, 
and  which  is  the  programme  announced  to  the  American  people 
to-day,  is  this  :  that  if  this  House  cannot  have  its  own  way  in 
certain  matters,  not  connected  with  appropriations,  it  will  so 
use,  or  refrain  from  using,  its  voluntary  powers  as  to  destroy 
the  Government." 

Going  deep  down  to  the  foundations  of  the  philosophy  of  our 
Government,  he  bottomed  his  whole  argument  on  these  compre 
hensive  propositions,  which  were  ample  to  sustain  the  super 
structure  of  illustration  with  which  he  strengthened  and  adorned 
it.  Said  he  : 

"Our  theory  of  law  is  free  consent.  That  is  the  granite 
foundation  of  our  whole  superstructure.  Nothing  in  the  Re 
public  can  be  law  without  consent — the  free  consent  of  the 
House  ;  the  free  consent  of  the  Senate  ;  the  free  consent  of  the 
Executive,  or,  if  he  refuse  it,  the  free  consent  of  two  thirds  of 
these  bodies.  Will  any  man  deny  that  ?  Will  any  man  chal 
lenge  a  line  of  the  statement  that  free  consent  is  the  foundation 
rock  of  all  our  institutions  ?  And  yet  the  programme  announced 
two  weeks  ago  was  that  if  the  Senate  refused  to  consent  to  the 
demand  of  the  House,  the  Government  should  stop.  And  the 
proposition  was  then,  and  the  programme  is  now,  that,  although 
there  is  not  a  Senate  to  be  coerced,  there  is  still  a  third  inde 
pendent  branch  in  the  legislative  power  of  the  Government, 
whose  consent  is  to  be  coerced  at  the  peril  of  the  destruction  of 
this  Government  ;  that  is,  if  the  President,  in  the  discharge  of 
his  duty,  shall  exercise  his  plain  constitutional  right  to  refuse 
his  consent  to  this  proposed  legislation,  the  Congress  will  so 
use  its  voluntary  powers  as  to  destroy  the  Government.  This 
is  the  proposition  which  we  confront  ;  and  we  denounce  it  as 
revolution." 

Although  he  was  willing,  at  the  regular  session,  to  make 
reasonable  amendments  to  the  laws  which  it  was  proposed  to 
carry  on  the  backs  of  appropriation  bills,  he  took  the  broad 
principle  that,  however  inoffensivp  the  proposition,  if  it  was 
demanded  "that  as  a  matter  of  coercion  it  shall  be  adopted, 
against  the  free  consent  prescribed  in  the  Constitution,  every 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD.  139 

fair-minded  man  in  America  is  bound  to  resist  you,  as  much  as 
though  his  own  life  depended  upon  the  resistance."  And  he 
then  challenged  all  comers  to  show  a  single  instance  in  our 
history  when  this  consent  was  coerced.  "  This,"  said  he,  "  is 
the  great,  the  paramount  issue,  which  dwarfs  all  others  into 
insignificance. ' ' 

Then,  showing  that  the  election  law,  which  was  denounced 
as  so  great  an  offence  as  to  justify  the  destruction  of  the  Gov 
ernment  rather  than  let  it  remain  on  the  statute-books,  was 
passed  with  the  active  co-operation  of  prominent  Democratic 
members  of  both  houses,  and  thus  aggravating  the  criminality 
of  their  changed  position,  he  intensified  the  point  he  made 
by  stating  that  "  the  proposition  now  is  that,  after  fourteen 
years  have  passed  and  not  one  petition  from  one  American 
citizen  has  come  to  us  asking  that  this  law  be  repealed,  while 
not  one  memorial  has  found  its  way  to  our  desks  complaining 
of  the  law,  so  far  as  I  have  heard,  the  Democratic  House  of 
Representatives  now  hold  that  if  they  are  not  permitted  to  force 
upon  another  house  and  upon  the  Executive  against  their  con 
sent  the  repeal  of  a  law  that  Democrats  made,  this  refusal  shall 
be  considered  a  sufficient  ground  for  starving  this  Government 
to  death." 

This  phrase,  "  starving  the  Government  to  death,"  was  one 
of  those  inspirational  condensations  of  argument  and  truth 
which  only  occur  to  statesmen  of  creative  and  original  minds. 
It  covered  the  whole  ground,  reached  to  the  vitals  of  the  con 
troversy,  and  exposed  to  the  people  the  nature  and  the  deadli- 
ness  of  the  conspiracy  that  had  tried  to  ambush  itself  under 
English  precedents  of  redressing  grievances  that  were  totally 
inapplicable  to  our  system  of  three  independent,  free,  and  equal 
branches  of  the  Government. 

"Without  undertaking  to  review  or  to  revive  the  special  points 
of  argument  with  which  this  speech  and  a  following  speech  on 
the  same  subject  on  the  4th  of  April,  fairly  bristled,  it  is  suffi 
cient  to  quote  one  passage  which  stands  a  fair  chance  of  going 
down  to  posterity  and  ot  taking  its  place  alongside  of  Web- 


140  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GABFIELD. 

ster's  defences  of  the  Constitution  against  attacks  prompted  by 
the  same  spirit  and  originated  in  the  same  quarter.     Said  he  : 

"Touching  this  question  of  Executive  action,  I  remind  the 
gentleman  that  in  1856  the  National  Democratic  Convention, 
in  session  at  Cincinnati,  and,  still  later,  the  National  Demo 
cratic  Convention  of  I860,  affirmed  the  right  of  the  veto  as  one 
of  the  sacred  rights  guaranteed  by  our  Government.  Here  is 
the  resolution  : 

"  *  That  we  are  decidedly  opposed  to  taking  from  the  President 
the  qualified  veto  power  by  which  he  is  enabled,  under  restric 
tions  and  responsibilities  amply  sufficient  to  guard  the  public 
interests,  to  suspend  the  passage  of  a  bill  whose  merits  cannot 
secure  the  approval  of  two  thirds  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives  until  the  judgment  of  the  people  can  be 
obtained  thereon.' 

"  The  doctrine  is  that  any  measure  which  cannot  be  passed 
over  a  veto  by  a  two  thirds  vote,  has  no  right  to  become  a  law  ; 
and  the  only  mode  of  redress  is  an  appeal  to  the  people  at  the 
next  election.  That  has  been  the  Democratic  doctrine  from 
the  earliest  days — notably  so  from  Jackson's  time — until  now. 

"  In  leaving  this  topic,  let  me  ask  what  you  would  have  said 
if,  in  1861,  the  Democratic  members  of  the  Senate,  being  then 
a  majority  of  that  body,  instead  of  taking  the  heroic  course  and 
going  out  to  battle,  had  simply  said,  '  We  will  put  on  an  ap 
propriation  bill  an  amendment  declaring  the  right  of  any  State 
to  secede  from  the  Union  at  pleasure,  and  forbidding  the 
President  or  any  officer  of  the  Army  or  Navy  of  the  United 
States  from  interfering  with  any  State  in  its  work  of  seces 
sion.'  Suppose  they  had  said  to  the  President,  'Unless  you 
consent  to  the  incorporation  of  this  provision  in  an  appropria 
tion  bill,  we  will  refuse  supplies  to  the  Government.'  Per 
haps  they  could  then  have  killed  the  Government  by  starva 
tion  ;  but  even  in  the  madness  of  that  hour,  the  leaders  of 
rebellion  did  not  think  it  worthy  their  manhood  to  put  their 
fight  on  that  dishonorable  ground.  They  planted  themselves 
on  the  higher  plane  of  battle  and  fought  it  out  to  defeat. 

"  Now,  by  a  method  which  the  wildest  secessionist  scorned  to 
adopt,  it  is  proposed  to  make  this  new  assault  upon  the  life  of 
the  Republic. 

"  Gentlemen,  we  have  calmly  surveyed  this  new  field  of  con 
flict  ;  we  have  tried  to  count  the  cost  of  the  struggle,  as  we 
did  that  of  1861,  before  we  took  up  your  gage  of  battle. 
Though  no  human  foresight  could  forecast  the  awful  loss  of 


THE   LIFE   OF  GE1ST.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  141 

blood  and  treasure,  yet  in  the  name  of  liberty  and  union  we 
accepted  the  issue  and  fought  it  out  to  the  end.  We  made 
the  appeal  to  our  august  sovereign,  to  the  omnipotent  public 
opinion  of  America,  to  determine  whether  the  Union  should 
perish  at  your  hands.  You  know  the  result.  And  now  law 
fully,  in  the  exercise  of  our  right  as  Representatives,  we  take 
up  the  gage  you  have  this  day  thrown  down,  and  appeal  again 
to  our  common  sovereign  to  determine  whether  you  shall  be 
permitted  to  destroy  the  principle  of  free  consent  in  legislation 
under  the  threat  of  starving  the  Government  to  death. 

"  We  are  ready  to  pass  these  bills  for  the  support  of  the  Gov 
ernment  at  any  hour  when  you  will  offer  them  in  the  ordinary 
way,  by  the  methods  prescribed  by  the  Constitution.  If  you 
offer  those  other  propositions  of  legislation  as  separate  meas 
ures,  we  will  meet  you  in  the  fraternal  spirit  of  fair  debate  and 
will  discuss  their  merits.  Some  of  your  measures  many  of  us 
will  vote  for  in  separate  bills.  But  you  shall  not  coerce  any  inde 
pendent  branch  of  this  Government,  even  by  the  threat  of 
starvation,  to  surrender  its  voluntary  powers  until  the  question 
has  been  appealed  to  the  sovereign  and  decided  in  your  favor. 
On  this  ground  we  plant  ourselves,  and  here  we  will  stand  to 
the  end." 

In  his  speech  on  the  4th  of  April  he  reminded  the  Democratic 
members  that  they  had  only  to  wait  two  years,  when  they  could 
have  the  three  consents  to  all  the  legislation  they  wanted  which 
are  required  by  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  to 
wit,  the  free  consent  of  the  House,  the  free  consent  of  the 
Senate  and  the  free  consent  of  the  Executive,  provided  by  that 
time  they  had  convinced  the  people  that  the  legislation  they 
desired  was  needed  and  just.  Until  then  he  asked  them  to 
restrain  their  rage  until  they  had  the  lawful  power  to  strike 
down  these  statutes.  But,  lest  he  should  be  misunderstood,  he 
added  : 

"  I  said  last  session,  and  I  have  said  since,  that  if  you  want  this 
whole  statute  concerning  the  use  of  the  Army  at  the  polls  torn 
from  your  books,  I  will  help  you  to  do  it.  If  you  will  offer  a 
naked  proposition  to  repeal  those  two  sections  of  the  Revised 
Statutes  named  in  the  sixth  section  of  this  bill,  I  will  vote  with 
you.  But  you  do  not  ask  a  repeal  of  those  sections.  Why  ? 
They  impose  restrictions  upon  the  use  of  the  Army,  limiting  its 


142*         THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

functions  and  punishing  its  officers  for  any  infraction  of  these 
limitations  :  but  you  ask  to  strike  out  a  negative  clause,  there 
by  making  new  and  affirmative  legislation  of  the  most  sweeping 
and  dangerous  character. 

u  Your  proposed  modification  of  the  law  affects  not  the  Army 
alone,  but  the  whole  civil  power  of  the  United  States.  *  Civil 
officers '  are  included  iu  these  sections,  and,  if  the  proposed 
amendment  be  adopted,  you  deny  to  any  civil  officer  of  the 
United  States  any  power  whatever  to  summon  the  armed  posse 
to  help  him  enforce  the  processes  of  the  law.  If  you  pass  the 
section  in  that  form,  you  impose  restrictions  upon  the  civil 
authorities  of  the  United  States  never  before  proposed  in  any 
Congress  by  any  legislator  since  this  Government  began.  I  say, 
therefore,  in  the  shape  you  propose  this,  it  is  much  the  M-orst 
of  all  your  '  riders. '  In  the  beginning  of  this  contest,  we  un 
derstood  that  you  desired  only  to  get  the  Army  away  from  the 
polls.  As  that  would  still  leave  the  civil  officers  full  power  to 
keep  the  peace  at  the  polls,  I  thought  it  was  the  least  impor 
tant  and  the  least  dangerous  of  your  demands  ;  but  as  you  have 
put  it  here,  it  is  the  most  dangerous.  If  you  re-enact  it  in  the 
shape  presented,  it  becomes  a  later  law  than  the  supervisors 
and  marshals  law,  and  pn>  tanio  repeals  the  latter.  As  it  stands 
now  in  the  statute-book,  it  is  the  earlier  statute,  and  is  pro 
tanto  itself  repealed  by  the  marshals  law  of  1871,  and  is  there 
fore  harmless  so  far  as  it  relates  to  civil  officers.  But  if  you 
put  it  in  here,  you  deny  the  power  of  the  marshals  of  the  United 
States  to  perform  their  duties  whenever  a  riot  may  require  the 
use  of  an  armed  posse." 

The  ablest-  and  most  specious  Democratic  plea  in  behalf  of 
the  scheme  of  coercing  the  Executive  was  made  by  that  distin 
guished  jurist  from  Virginia,  Mr.  J.  Randolph  Tucker.  He  had 
most  artfully  used  the  deceptive  and  false  precedent  of  the 
practice  of  the  House  of  Commons  of  accompanying  supply  bills 
with  a  list  of  grievances  to  be  redressed,  to  which  Garfield 
replied  : 

"  The  gentleman  from  Virginia  says,  *  Unless  you  let  us  ap 
pend  a  condition  which  we  regard  a  redress  of  grievances,  we 
will  let  the  Aimy  be  annihilated  on  the  30th  day  of  next  June 
by  withholding  supplies.'  That  is  legitimate  argument  ;  that 
is  a  frank  declaration  of  your  policy.  Let  us  examine  the  pro- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEJK.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD.  143 

position.  What  is  the  '  grievance  '  of  which  the  gentleman 
complains  ?  He  uses  the  word  '  grievance  '  in  the  old  English 
sense,  as  though  the  king  were  thrusting  himself  in  the  way  of 
the  nation  by  making  a  war  contrary  to  the  nation's  wish. 
What  is  the  '  grievance  '  of  which  the  gentleman  complains  \ 
His  '  grievance  '  is  a  law  of  the  land — a  law  made  by  the  repre- 
sentatives  of  the  people — by  all  the  forms  of  consent  known  to 
the  Constitution.  It  is  his  '  grievance  '  that  he  cannot  get  rid 
of  this  law  by  the  ordinary  and  constitutional  methods  of 
appeal.  [Applause.]  When  he  can  get  rid  of  any  law  by  the 
union  of  all  the  consents  that  are  required  to  make  or  unmake 
a  law,  then  he  can  lawfully  get  rid  of  it,  whether  it  is  a  griev 
ance  or  a  blessing.  But  his  method  is  first  to  call  a  law  a 
'  grievance  '  and  then  try  to  get  rid  of  it  in  defiance  of  the 
processes  which  the  Constitution  prescribes  for  the  law-making 
power  of  the  nation.  I  denounce  his  method  as  unconstitu 
tional  and  revolutionary,  and  one  that  will  result  in  far  greater 
evil  than  that  of  which  he  complains. ' ' 


Through  the  whole  of  this  controversy  in  the  regular  and  in 
the  extra  session,  Garfield  bore  himself  not  only  with  courage, 
which  is  a  common  attribute,  but  with  a  conscientious  and  in 
dependent  statesmanship  which  refused  to  be  controlled  even 
by  the  criticism  and  clamor  of  influential  members  of  his  own 
party.  Throughout  the  whole  he  was  not  so  much  the  partisan 
as  he  was  the  constitutional  lawyer  and  the  patriot.  Believing 
in,  thoroughly  comprehending,  and  admiring  with  the  whole 
force  of  his  nature,  the  grandeur  of  the  system  of  checks  and 
balances  and  distributions  of  powers,  which  characterize  our 
Government,  he  was  as  inflexible  in  the  maintenance  of  his  own 
convictions  of  right,  against  the  pressure  of  friends,  as  he  was 
fearless  in  meeting  the  assaults  of  political  enemies  who  had 
attempted  a  desperate  and  revolutionary  scheme.  He  was  the 
central  and  commanding  figure  in  all  this  great  controversy — 
as  important,  in  all  respects,  as  that  which  Webster  faced  so 
grandly  in  1832.  As  the  prejudices,  passions,  and  excitements 
which  clouded  the  minds  of  many  of  the  combatants  in  this 
period  pass  away,  Garfield 's  courage  and  broad-minded  states 
manship  havebecome  more  and  more  the  subject  of  admiration 


144  THE   LIFE   OF   GEJST.  JAMES  A.  WARFIELD. 

on  the  part  of  those  who  agreed  with  him  at  the  time,  of  those 
within  his  own  party  who  then  differed  from  him,  and  even  of 
many  of  those  whose  arguments  he  was  obliged  to  repel.  He 
showed  himself  more  than  a  mere  party  leader.  He  rose  to  the 
full  proportions  of  an  American  statesman,  whose  nature,  con 
victions,  and  training  had  rendered  it  impossible  that  he  should 
either  surrender  or  cease  to  defend  any  of  that  beautiful  and 
symmetrically  proportioned  edifice  of  civil  liberty  which  was 
the  product  of  the  wisdom,  the  experience,  and  the  patriotism 
of  the  fathers. 

Although  it  would  be  supposed  that  the  duties  imposed  upon 
him  as  leader  of  the  Republican  side  of  the  House  at  the  extra 
session  in  opposing  the  coercionist  and  revolutionary  schemes 
of  the  Democrats  would  have  been  sufficient  to  engage  all  his 
energies,  it  is  notable  that  he  was  found  prepared  for  every 
emergency  of  debate  on  other  issues  of  importance  as  they  arose 
for  the  consideration  of  the  House.  For  instance,  on  the  15th 
of  April  he  furnished  a  startling  array  of  facts  as  to  the  num 
ber  of  Union  soldiers  who  had  risked  everything  for  the  cause 
in  the  seceding  States.  Five  days  before  that  he  had  handled 
with  his  usual  vigor  the  question  of  resumption  and  the  cur 
rency,  resisting  an  insidious  attempt  to  increase  the  volume  of 
the  subsidiary  paper  currency.  On  the  17th  of  May  he  made  a 
brief  speech  on  the  House  bill  to  authorize  the  unlimited  coin 
age  of  silver,  and  to  give  the  profits  thereof  to  the  owners  of 
bullion,  which  was  a  remarkable  instance  of  condensation,  and 
was  well  calculated  to  appeal  to  the  good  sense  of  those  advo 
cates  of  silver  who  have  some  consideration  for  the  immutable 
laws  of  trade  and  currency,  and  warned  the  House  that  the  bill 
under  consideration  reached  further  and  touched  more  vital 
interests  than  was  generally  appreciated.  He  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  "  within  recent  months  the  leading  thinkers  of 
the  civilized  world  had  become  alarmed  at  the  attitude  of  the 
two  precious  metals  in  relation  to  each  other,"  and  that  u  many 
leading  thinkers  were  becoming  clearly  of  the  opinion  that  by 
some  wise,  judicious  arrangement  both  the  precious  metals 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.  GAEFIELD.  145 

must  be  kept  in  service  for  the  currency  of  the  world. "  And  he 
called  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  fact  that  in  England 
there  had  been  recently  a  decided  accession  to  the  side  of  those 
who  believed  that  she  ought  to  abandon  the  single  gold  stand 
ard  and  "  harness  both  silver  and  gold  to  the  monetary  car  of 
the  world."  "  And  yet,"  added  he,  "  outside  of  this  Capitol, 
I  do  not  this  day  know  of  a  single  great  and  recognized  advo 
cate  of  bimetallic  money  who  regards  it  prudent  or  safe  for 
any  nation  largely  to  increase  the  coinage  standard  of  silver 
coin  at  the  present  time  beyond  the  limits  fixed  by  existing 
laws.  France  and  the  States  of  the  Latin  Union,  that  have 
long  believed  in  bimetallism,  maintained  it  against  all  comers, 
and  have  done  all  in  their  power  to  advocate  it  throughout  the 
world,  dare  not  coin  a  single  silver  coin,  and  have  not  done  so 
since  1874.  The  most  strenuous  advocates  of  bimetallism  in 
those  countries  say  it  would  be  ruinous  to  bimetallism  for 
France  or  the  Latin  Union  to  coin  any  more  silver  at  present. 
The  remaining  stock  of  German  silver  now  for  sale,  amounting 
to  from  forty  to  seventy-five  millions  of  dollars,  is  a  standing 
menace  to  the  exchange  and  silver  coinage  of  Europe.  One 
month  ago  the  leading  financial  journal  of  London  proposed 
that  the  Bank  of  England  buy  one  half  of  the  German  surplus 
and  hold  it  five  years  on  condition  that  the  German  Govern 
ment  shall  hold  the  other  half  off  the  market.  The  time  is 
ripe  for  some  wise  and  prudent  arrangement  among  the  nations 
to  save  silver  from  a  disastrous  break-down." 
And  he  continued  : 

"  Yet  we,  who  during  the  past  two  years  have  coined  far 
more  silver  dollars  than  we  ever  before  coined  since  the  founda 
tion  of  the  Government — ten  times  as  many  as  we  coined  during 
half  a  century  of  our  national  life — are  to-day  ignoring  and 
defying  the  enlightened,  universal  opinion  of  bimetallists,  and 
saying  that  the  United  States,  single-handed  and  alone,  can 
enter  the  field  and  settle  the  mighty  issue  alone.  We  are  justi 
fying  the  old  proverb  that  '  Fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to 
tread.' 

"  It  is  sheer  madness,  Mr.  Speaker.     I  once  saw  a  dog  on  a 


14G  THJ!    LIFE    OF    GEN.  JAMES    A.   GAKFIELD. 

great  stack  of  hay  that  had  been  floated  out  into  the  wild,  over 
flowed  stream  of  a  liver,  with  its  stack-pen  and  foundation  still 
holding  together,  but  ready  to  be  wrecked.  For  a  little  while 
the  animal  appeared  to  be  perfectly  happy.  His  hay-stack  was 
there  and  the  pen  around  it,  and  he  seemed  to  think  the  world 
bright,  and  his  happiness  secure,  while  the  sunshine  fell  softly 
on  his  head  and  his  hay.  But  by  and  by  he  began  to  discover 
that  the  house  and  the  barn  and  their  surroundings  were  not 
all  there  as  they  were  when  he  went  to  sleep  the  night  before  ; 
and  he  began  to  see  that  he  could  not  command  all  the  prospect 
and  peacefully  dominate  the  scene  as  he  had  done  before.  So 
with  this  House.  We  assume  to  manage  this  mighty  question 
which  has  been  launched  on  the  wild  current  that  sweeps  over 
the  whole  world,  and  we  bark  from  our  legislative  hay-stacks, 
as  though  we  commanded  the  whole  world.  [Applause.]  In 
the  name  of  common-sense  and  sanity,  let  us  take  some  account 
of  the  flood  ;•  let  us  understand  that  a  deluge  means  something, 
and  try,  if  we  can,  to  get  our  bearings  before  we  undertake  to 
settle  the  affairs  of  all  mankind  by  a  vote  of  this  House. 

"  To-day  we  are  coining  one  third  of  all  the  silver  that  is 
being  coined  in  the  round  world.  China  is  coining  another 
third  ;  and  all  other  nations  are  using  the  remaining  one  third 
for  subsidiary  coin.  And  if  we  want  to  take  rank  with  China 
and  part  company  with  all  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  West 
ern  world,  let  us  pass  this  bill,  and  then  '  bay  the  moon  '  as 
we  float  down  the  whirling  channel  to  take  our  place  among 
the  silver  monometallists  of  Asia. 

u  What  this  country  needs  above  all  other  things,  is  that  this 
Congress  shall  pass  the  appropriation  bills,  adjourn,  and  go 
home  [applause  on  the  Republican  side],  and  let  the  forces  of 
business  and  good  order  and  brotherhood,  working  in  their 
natural  and  orderly  way,  bring  us  into  light  and  stability  and 
peace.  And  we  want  time  to  adjust  this  great  international 
question.  Now,  while  I  am  speaking,  the  Administration  is 
opening  negotiations  with  all  the  Western  nations,  to  see  if 
there  cannot  be  some  international  arrangement  whereby  this 
question  of  bimetallism  may  be  wisely  settled.  We  tried  it  by 
international  monetary  conference.  It  was  a  preliminary  recon 
naissance,  and — " 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

On  the  21st  of  June  General  Garfield  made  a  speech  on  the 
Mississippi  River  as  an  object  of  national  care,  which  showed 
that  while  he  was  resolutely  opposed  to  wasting  the  national 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES    A.   GAHFIELD.  14? 

treasure  in  improving  mountain-trout  brooks  for  purposes  of 
navigation,  and  to  river  and  harbor  bills  that  consisted  largely 
of  appropriations  for  harbors  which  had  no  commerce  and 
rivers  which  were  vexed  by  no  keels,  he  was  perfectly  willing 
to  go  the  full  length  of  a  wise  liberality  in  the  improvement  of 
great  national  water-ways,  especially  of  the  river  which  drains 
thirty  States  of  the  Union. 

This  speech  attracted  much  attention  and  called  out  much 
admiration  at  the  time,  and  deserves  to  form  a  part  of  any 
record  of  Garfield's  statesmanship.  Said  he  : 

"  MR.  SPEAKER  :  I  should  oppose  this  bill,  very  decidedly,  if 
it  committed  us  at  this  time  to  any  plan  or  theory  of  managing 
the  Mississippi  River  ;  and  I  think  the  remarks  of  the  gentle 
man  from  Indiana  [Mr.  Baker],  warning  us  against  committal 
in  any  such  direction,  are  wise.  But  I  have  looked  the  bill 
over  with  what  care  I  could,  and  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  by 
its  passage  we  commit  ourselves  to  anything  further  than  the 
purpose  to  obtain  accurate  official  information  touching  the 
present  condition  and  needs  of  this  great  stream.  I  admit  that 
we  have  already  had  examinations  and  explorations  of  the 
Mississippi,  some  of  them  scientific  and  very  valuable  ;  but 
everybody  will  concede  that  one  important  experiment  has  been 
made,  in  recent  years,  which,  though  against  the  opinion  of 
the  majority  of  engineers,  has  proved  apparently  a  great  suc 
cess  :  I  mean  the  jetty  system  at  the  mouth  of  that  river.  I 
say  l  apparently, '  because  it  is  possible  that  in  the  long  run  it 
may  not  prove  a  success  ;  but  at  the  present  moment  it  appears 
to  be  a  great  and  striking  success  in  the  management  of  the 
mouths  of  that  river.  If  it  prove  to  be  permanently  so,  all  our 
calculations,  and,  indeed,  all  our  theories  concerning  the  im 
provement  and  management  of  other  portions  of  that  river  need 
to  be  reconsidered  in  view  of  the  new  light  that  the  jetty 
system  will  throw  upon  the  question.  Hence  a  proposition  to 
turn  on  the  light,  to  get  information,  and  to  get  it  from  the 
best  scientific  advisers  that  we  can  call  to  our  aid,  is  a  step  in 
the  right  direction.  I  have  always  favored  measures  which 
will  result  in  giving  us  information  upon  all  questions  about 
which  we  are  called  upon  to  legislate.  "What  shall  be  done 
with  this  knowledge  when  it  comes,  will  be  for  our  successors 
to  say.  We  do  not  commit  ourselves  or  them  to  any  scheme  at 
this  time.  But  for  myself,  I  believe  that  one  of  the  grandest 


148  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAHFJELD. 

of  our  material  national  interests — one  that  is  national  in  the 
largest  material  sense  of  that  word — is  the  Mississippi  River  and 
its  navigable  tributaries.  It  is  the  most  gigantic  single  natural 
feature  of  our  continent,  far  transcending  the  glory  of  the 
ancient  Nile  or  of  any  other  river  on  the  earth.  The  states 
manship  of  America  must  grapple  the  problem  of  this  mighty 
stream.  It  is  too  vast  for  any  State  to  handle  ;  too  much  for 
any  authority  less  than  that  of  the  nation  itself  to  manage. 
And  I  believe  the  time  will  come  when  the  liberal-minded 
statesmanship  of  this  country  will  devise  a  wise  and  compre 
hensive  system,  that  will  harness  the  powers  of  this  great  river 
to  the  material  interests  of  America,  so  that  not  only  all  the 
people  who  live  on  its  banks  and  the  banks  of  its  confluents, 
but  all  the  citizens  of  the  Republic,  whether  dwellers  in  the 
central  valley  or  oil  the  slope  of  either  ocean,  will  recognize  the 
importance  of  preserving  and  perfecting  this  great  natural  and 
material  bond  of  national  union  between  the  North  and  the 
South — a  bond  to  be  so  strengthened  by  commerce  and  inter 
course  that  it  can  never  be  severed.  [Applause.] 

"  One  of  our  early  Presidents  went  so  far  as  even  to  exceed 
his  early  preconceived  opinions  of  the  constitutional  power  of 
the  Executive,  in  order  to  buy  from  France  a  mighty  empire  to 
be  added  to  the  Union  ;  and  he  did  it  for  this  reason  chiefly, 
that  the  young  Republic  could  not  permanently  endure  as  a 
nation  without  owning  and  controlling  the  mouths  of  the 
Mississippi.  Nearly  the  whole  continent  west  of  that  river  was 
bought,  to  make  the  Union  perpetual  by  bringing  every  foot  of 
the  shore  of  the  Mississippi  under  our  flag.  If  I  did  not  think 
it  almost  unworthy  of  so  great  a  theme,  I  wrould  say  that  if 
there  had  been  no  patriotic  impulse  higher  than  any  considera 
tion  of  material  welfare  which  moved  twenty  millions  of  Ameri 
cans  to  resist  the  attempt  to  break  the  Union  in  pieces,  and  im 
pelled  them  to  hold  it  together  by  all  the  cost  of  blood  and 
treasure  that  our  late  war  required,  'if  there  had  been  no  higher 
national  sentiment  inspiring  them,  the  immense  material  stake 
which  the  people  of  the  great  North  and  West  and  centre  of 
this  country  had  in  the  free  use  of  that  river  from  jts  sources  to 
its  mouth,  that  their  commerce  might  go  southward  to  the  sea 
under  the  one  flag,  unvexed  by  conflicting  nationalities,  this 
material  stake  alone  would  have  made  all  the  people  of  the 
upper  valley  of  the  Mississippi  resist  to  the  last  the  dismember 
ment  of  the  Union. 

44  This  great  river,  which  our  fathers,  made  such  sacrifices  to 
acquire,  and  which  the  present  generation  made  so  much  cost- 


THE   LIFE  OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  149 

Her  sacrifices  to  redeem  from  disunion  and  to  hold  within  the 
grasp  of  the  nation,  we  have  held,  not  in  obedience  to  mere 
sentiment  alone,  not  with  a  view  of  keeping  it  as  a  vast  and 
worthless  waste  of  water,  but  to  utilize  it  by  making  it  the  ser 
vant  of  all  the  people  of  this  country.  How  shall  we  utilize  it, 
unless  at  some  time,  and  in  some  wise  way,  we  bridle  it  by  the 
skill  of  man  and  make  it  subservient  to  the  interests  of  com 
merce  ? 

"  Now,  Mr.  Speaker  and  gentlemen  of  the  House,  there  is 
another  reason  why  I  am  in  favor  of  this  measure,  I  rejoice  in 
any  occasion  which  enables  Representatives  from  the  North 
and  from  the  South  to  unite  in  an  unpartisan  effort  to  promote 
a  great  national  interest.  [Applause.]  Such  an  occasion  is 
good  for  us  both.  And  when  we  can  do  it  without  the  sacrifice 
of  our  convictions,  and  can  benefit  millions  of  our  fellow- 
citizens,  and  thereby  strengthen  the  bonds  of  the  Union,  we 
ought  to  do  it  with  rejoicing  ;  for,  in  so  doing,  we  shall  inspire 
our  people  with  larger  and  more  generous  views,  and  help  to 
confirm  for  them  and  for  our  posterity  to  our  latest  generations, 
the  indissoluble  Union  and  the  permanent  grandeur  of  this 
Republic.  I  shall  vote  for  this  bill."  [Applause  on  both  sides 
of  the  House.] 

On  the  27th  of  June  he  made  a  very  terse  and  condensed  ar 
gument  on  the  various  phases  of  the  revived  doctrine  of  State 
Sovereignty,  showing  from  the  recent  speeches  of  Democratic 
members  that  Calhounism  still  had  prominent  defenders  and  ex 
ponents  among  the  leaders  of  that  party  in  both  branches  of 
Congress.  The  declarations  made  by  these  men  he  summarized 
in  this  manner  : 

"  Let  me  summarize  them  :  First,  there  are  no  national  elec 
tions  ;  second,  the  United  States  has  no  voters  ;  third,  the 
States  have  the  exclusive  right  to  control  all  elections  of  mem 
bers  of  Congress  ;  fourth,  the  Senators  and  Representatives  in 
Congress  are  State  officers,  or,  as  they  have  been  called  during 
the  present  session,  *  ambassadors  '  or  *  agents  '  of  the  State  ;  fifth, 
the  United  States  has  no  authority  to  keep  the  peace  anywhere 
within  a  State,  and,  in  fact,  has  no  peace  to  keep  ;  sixth,  the 
United  States  is  not  a  nation  endowed  with  sovereign  power,  but 
is  a  confederacy  of  States  ;  seventh,  the  States  are  sovereignties 
possessing  inherent  supreme  powers  ;  they  are  older  than  the 


150  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

Union,  and  as  independent  sovereignties  the  State  Governments 
created  the  Union  and  determined  and  limited  the  powers  of  the 
General  Government. 

u  These  declarations  embody  the  sum  total  of  the  constitu 
tional  doctrines  which  the  Democracy  has  avowed  during  this 
extra  session  of  Congress.  They  torm  a  body  of  doctrines 
which  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  are  more  extreme  than  were  ever 
before  held  in  this  subject,  except  perhaps  at  the  very  crisis  of 
secession  and  rebellion." 

He  then  enumerated  the  attempts  which  had  been  made  to 
embody  these  abstract  and  false  theories  of  our  Government  in 
practice  ;  and  met  them  with  these  broad  counter-propositions, 
which  are  important  in  any  estimate  of  GarfiekTs  constitutional 
views  : 

"  I  affirm  :  First,  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
was  not  created  by  the  Government  of  the  States,  but  was  or 
dained  and  established  by  the  only  sovereign  in  this  country— 
the  common  superior  of  both  the  States  and  the  nation — the 
people  themselves  ;  second,  that  the  United  States  is  a  nation, 
having  a  government  whose  powers,  as  defined  and  limited  by 
the  Constitution,  operate  upon  all  the  States  in  their  corporate 
capacity  and  upon  all  the  people  ;  third,  that  by  its  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  authority,  the  nation  is  armed  with  ade 
quate  power  to  enforce  all  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution 
against  all  opposition  of  individuals  or  of  States,  at  all  times  and 
all  places  within  the  Union.1' 

These  propositions  he  defended  by  a  summary  of  the  history 
of  the  sovereignty  and  government  in  this  country  as  comprised 
in  four  sharply  denned  epochs,  to  wit  : 

"  First  :  Prior  to  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  sovereignty,  so  far 
as  it  can  be  affirmed  of  this  country,  was  lodgd  in  the  Crown  cf 
Great  Britain.  Every  member  of  every  colony  (the  colonists 
were  not  citizens  but  subjects)  drew  his  legal  rights  from  the 
Crown  of  Great  Britain.  4  Every  acre  of  land  in  this  country 
was  then  held  mediately  or  immediately  by  grants  from  that 
Crown,'  and  *  all  the  civil  authority  then  existing  or  exercised 
here,  flowed  from  the  head  of  the  British  Empire.' 

"  Second:    On  the  4th  day  of  July,  1776,  the  people  of  these 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELU.  151 

colonies,  asserting  their  natural  inherent  right  as  sovereigns, 
withdrew  the  sovereignty  from  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain  and 
reserved  it  to  themselves.  In  so  far  as  they  delegated  this  na 
tional  authority  at  all,  they  delegated  it  to  the  Continental 
Congress  assembled  at  Philadelphia.  That  Congress,  by  gen 
eral  consent,  became  the  supreme  government  of  this  country — 
executive,  judicial,  and  legislative  in  one.  During  the  whole 
of  its  existence  it  wielded  the  supreme  power  of  the  new  na 
tion. 

"  Third  :  On  the  1st  day  of  March,  1781,  the  same  sovereign 
power,  the  people,  withdrew  the  authority  from  the  Continental 
Congress  and  lodged  it,  so  far  as  they  lodged  it  at  all,  with  the 
Confederation,  which,  though  a  league  of  States,  was  declared, 
to  be  a  perpetual  union. 

"  Fourth  :  When  at  last  our  fathers  found  the  Confederation 
too  weak  and  inefficient  for  the  purposes  of  a  great  nation,  they 
abolished  it  and  lodged  the  national  authority,  enlarged  and 
strengthened  by  new  powers,  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  where,  in  spite  of  all  assaults,  it  still  remains.  All  these 
great  acts  were  done  by  the  only  sovereign  in  this  Republic, 
the  people  themselves." 

After  illustrating  the  truth  of  his  propositions,  by  quotations 
from  Elliot's  "Debates"  and  the  "Decisions  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,"  he  said  : 

u  I  am  unwilling  to  believe  that  any  considerable  number  of 
Americans  will  ever  again  push  that  doctrine  to  the  same  ex 
treme  ;  and  yet  in  these  summer  months  of  1879,  in  the  Congress 
of  the  reunited  nation,  we  find  the  majority  drifting  fast  and 
far  in  the  wrong  direction,  by  reasserting  much  of  that  doctrine 
which  the  war  ought  to  have  settled  forever.  And  what  is 
more  lamentable,  such  declarations  as  those  which  I  read  at  the 
outset  are  finding  their  echoes  in  many  portions  of  the  country 
which  was  lately  the  theatre  of  war.  No  one  can  read  the  pro 
ceedings  at  certain  recent  celebrations,  without  observing  the 
growing  determination  to  assert  that  the  men  who  fought 
against  the  Union  were  not  engaged  in  treasonable  conspiracy 
against  the  nation,  but  that  they  did  right  to  fight  for  their 
States,  and  that,  in  the  long  run,  the  lost  cause  will  be  victo 
rious.  These  indications  are  filling  the  people  with  anxiety  and 
indignation  ;  and  they  are  beginning  to  inquire  whether  the 
war  has  really  settled  these  gteat  questions. 


152          THE   LIFE   OF  GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIEl.D. 

u  I  remind  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  that  we  have  not  our 
selves  revived4hcse  issues.  We  had  hoped  they  were  settled 
beyond  recall,  and  that  peace  and  friendship  might  be  fully 
restored  to  our  people. 

"  But  the  truth  requires  me  to  say  that  there  is  one  indispen 
sable  ground  of  agreement  on  which  alone  we  can  stand  to 
gether,  and  it  is  this  :  The  war  for  the  Union  was  right,  ever 
lastingly  right  [applause]  ;  and  the  war  against  the  Union  was 
wrong,  forever  wrong.  However  honest  and  sincere  individ 
uals  may  have  been,  the  secession  was  none  the  less  rebellion 
and  treason.  We  defend  the  States  in  the  exercise  of  their 
many  and  important  rights,  and  we  defend  with  equal  zeal  the 
rights  of  the  United  States.  The  rights  and  authority  of  both 
were  received  from  the  people— the  only  source  of  inherent 
power. 

"  We  insist  not  only  that  this  is  a  nation,  but  that  the  power 
of  the  Government,  within  its  own  prescribed  sphere,  operates 
directly  upon  the  States  and  upon  all  the  people.  We  insist 
that  our  laws  shall  be  construed  by  our  own  courts  and  enforced 
by  our  Executive.  Any  theory  which  is  inconsistent  with  this 
doctrine  we  will  resist  to  the  end." 

(Garfldd  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  May  20, 1879. 

I  have  read  your  letter  carefully.  It  is  all  interesting,  and  some  of  your  re 
flections  and  suggestions  are  very  valuable.  I  will  notice  yo»r  points  in  the 
order  yon  state  them. 

FIRST.— You  think  my  position  in  the  first  speech  was  greatly  modified,  if 
not  abandoned,  in  the  second,  because,  first,  from  the  speech  of  March  29th,  the 
ordinary  reader  would  get  the  idea  that  revolution  comes  in  on  the  rider,  and 
not  in  insisting  upon  the  rider  when  it  could  not  command  a  two  thirds  vote  ; 
second,  that  the  latter  point  is  not  mentioned  at  all  in  my  first  speech,  and  no  in 
timation  is  made  that  the  rider  is  ever  legitimate.  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  the 
reader  of  my  first  speech  who  had  not  paid  special  attention  to  the  transactions 
of  Congress  during  the  preceding  month  might  fail  to  understand  what  was  plain 
to  my  hearers,  who  had  listened  to  the  debate,  in  which  the  Democrats  had  re 
peatedly  stated  that  their  reason  for  putting  their  independent  legislation  upon 
the  appropriation  bill  as  a  rider  was  because  they  were  certain  it  would  be  vetoed 
if  passed  as  an  independent  measure,  and  their  only  hope  of  success  was  to  pass 
no  appropriation  bills  without  the  riders. 

Several  of  these  declarations  are  quoted  in  the  President's  veto  of  the  Army 
Appropriation  Bill.  But  I  don't,  think  that  the  ordinary  reader  can  find  anything 
in  my  first  speech  which  implies  that  it  is  revolutionary  to  put  a  rider  on  an  ap 
propriation  bill. 

It  is  singular  that  no  member  of  Congress  who  replied  to  me  attempted  to 
show  by  any  quotation  from  my  speech 'that  I  had  said  so. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEX.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  153 

On  the  contrary,  I  think  the  ordinary  reader  will  understand  that  I  was  dis 
cussing  the  refusal  to  vote  supplies  if  the  ridered  bill  should  be  vetoed. 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that,  after  developing,  on  pages  6,  7  and 
8  of  the  first  speech,  the  doctrine  of  the  voluntary  powers  of  the  government, 
and  that  the  free  consent  of  the  House,  the  Senate,  and  the  President,  or  two 
thirds  of  the  House  and  Senate  against  the  President's  consent  is  the  basis  of  all 
our  laws,  I  say  at  the  close  of  page  8 :  "  The  programme  announced  two  weeks 
ago  was  that  if  the  Senate  refused  to  consent  to  the  demands  of  the  House  the 
government  should  stop.  And  the  proposition  was  then,  and  the  programme 
is  now,  that,  although  there  is  not  a  Senate  to  be  coerced,  there  isetill  a  third 
independent  branch  in  the  legislative  power  of  the  government  whose  consent 
is  to  be  coerced  at  the  peril  of  the  destruction  of  this  government.  That  is,  h 
the  President,  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty,  shall  exercise  his  plnin  constitutional 
right  to  refuse  his  consent  to  this  proposed  legislation,  Congress  will  so  use 
its  voluntary  powers  as  to  destroy  the  government." 

This  is  the  proposition  which  we  confront  and  we  denounce  as  revolutionary. 
That  is,  the  Democratic  party  in  Congress,  knowing  it  had  not  a  two  thirds  ma 
jority,  declared  that  if  th<j  President  refused  his  signature  to  their  independent 
legislation  they  would  not  vote  supplies  and  would  let  the  government  perish  of 
inanition.  My  replies  to  the  questions  of  Mr.  Stevens,  page  11,  and  Mr.  Davis, 
page  14,  are  to  the  same  effect,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  speech.  I 
was  discussing  their  proposition,  that  if  they  could  not  pass  their  measures  of 
independent  legislation  in  spite  of  the  President's  veto— and  they  knew  they 
could  not — they  would  refuse  to  vote  supplies.  As  Mr.  Beck  said  :  "Whether 
that  course  is  right  or  wrong,  it  will  be  adhered  to,  no  matter  what  happens  to 
the  appropriation  bills." 

My  theme  was  the  proposed  coercion  of  the  President  and  the  threat  of  stop 
ping  the  government. 

I  think  it  appears  from  the  foregoing  that  I  did  not  call  riders  revolutionary. 
I  said  nothing  about  the  legitimacy  of  riders,  because  that  was  not  my  theme. 

SECOND.— You  think,  first,  that  I  used  the  word  revolution  in  a  loose  stump- 
speech  sense,  and  not  in  the  more  serious  sense  in  which  statesmen  should  em 
ploy  it ;  second,  and  you  see  nothing  in  the  state  of  the  public  mind  outside  of 
Congress  to  indicate  any  general  concurrence  in  my  opinion  that  revolution  was 
threatened.  I  know  the  word  is  sometimes  loosely  used  in  reference  to  changes 
of  a  quiet  sort.  We  say,  for  example,  there  has  been  a  revolution  in  the  com 
mon-school  system.  I  do  not  think  I  am  op«n  to  the  charge  of  nsing  it  either  in 
the  stump-speech  or  in  the  milder  sense  just  referred  to.  Certainly  we  had  a 
revolution  in  1861;  but  before  we  came  to  blows  the  revolution  was  prepared  by 
the  attempt  of  the  South  to  put  in  force  the  doctrine  that  a  State  was  sovereign 
and  had  a  right  to  secede  from  the  Union.  To  put  that  doctrine  in  practice  was 
to  destroy  the  government,  and  dissolution  was  revolution. 

Now,  the  Democratic  programme,  as  announced  by  Thurman,  Beck,  and  the 
rest,  is  that,  whatever  may  be  the  consequence,  they  will  not  vote  supplies  un 
less  certain  laws  are  repealed ;  and,  not  having  the  constitutional  power  to  repeal 
those  laws,  they  have  thus  far  refused  to  vote  supplies.  Continued  persistence 
in  that  refusal  destroys  the  government.  I  denounce  their  policy  and  purpose 


154  THE    LIFE    OF   GEX.   JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

as  threatened  revolution.  If  that  which  inevitably  destroy?  the  government  be 
not  revolution,  in  the  largest  and  most  dangerous  sense  of  that  word,  I  am  wholly 
mistaken. 

You  say  yon  do  not  see  signs  of  revolution  in  the  country  :  nor  do  I.  I  saw 
it  only  in  Congress.  The  title  of  my  speech  was  "  Revolution  in  Congress,"  and 
I  resisted  it  there  in  order  that  it  might  not  spread  and  become  revolution 
throughout  the  whole  Union.  I  do  not  now  believe  it  will  ripen  into  completed 
revolution,  because  the  purposes  of  the  Democracy  having  been  disclosed,  pub 
lic  opiniou  will  break  them  down.  I  think  my  speech  has  done  something  to 
ward  breaking  them  down  by  disclosing  their  purposes.  The  responses  of  the 
country  before  I  made  my  second  speech  greatly  relieved  my  apprehensions,  and 
I  felt  less  for  the  result  April  4th  than  I  did  March  29th,  though  the  Democracy 
had  not  abandoned  their  scheme,  nor  have  they  done  so  yet. 

THIRD. — Your  analysis  of  the  elements  that  make  up  the  spirit  of  the  Re 
publican  party  is  certainly  just  in  the  main.  It  would  not  be  possible  for  any 
party  to  be  the  chief  actor  in  the  events  of  the  past  twenty-five  years  without 
being  influenced  by  the  spirit  of  the  events  themselves.  Our  recent  history  has 
developed  a  war-horse  type  of  Republican  which  I  agree  with  you  in  despising 
as  a  permanent  element;  but  I  do  not  agree  with  you  that  the  present  agitation 
is  an  outcome  on  the  part  of  Republicans  to  get  up  a  new  cry.  We  do  not  get 
up  the  cry,  we  do  not  bring  in  this  new  issue.  My  analysis  of  the  situation  is 
this  :  Two  Democratic  leaders,  Tilden  and  Thurman,  are  engaged  in  a  desperate 
struggle  for  the  next  Presidency.  Tilden  hopes  to  be  elected  on  the  reminis 
cences  of  1876.  The  Potter  Committee  was  appointed  to  infuse  the  belief  that 
Tilden  had  been  counted  out  by  fraud.  Tilden  had  been  gaining  ground  as  a 
candidate,  and  if  Thurman  merely  joined  in  this  cry  of  fraud  he  carried  coals  to 
Tilden's  cellar  and  did  not  help  himself.  He  therefore  raised  a  new  issue  to  rally 
the  party  around  him.  His  cry  was:  "  No  military  interference  with  elections  !" 
"  Down  with  the  bayonet  at  the  polls  1"  "  Down  with  national  interference 
with  elections.1'  The  only  way  that  he  and  his  associates  could  elevate  this  issue 
into  prominence  was  by  threatening  to  stop  the  government  if  his  aggravations 
are  not  redressed.  Not  to  have  resisted  this  scheme  would  have  been  criminal 
on  our  part.  It  is  true  that  in  resisting  it  the  war-horse  type  of  Republican  has 
found  new  employment,  and  many  of  the  undesirable  elements  of  our  party  are 
delighted  that  this  issue  has  been  raised.  This  could  not  be  otherwise;  but  it  is 
not  just  to  say  that  Republicans  have  raised  the  issue  to  feed  their  taste  for 
gore. 

I  note  with  great  interest  what  you  say  about  the  recent  history  of  my 
mind  and  the  effect  of  stump-speaking  upon  my  modes  of  thinking.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  it  induceaa  looseness  and  superficiality  of  thought,  and  an  extrava 
gance  of  expression;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  some  compensations.  A 
man  addressing  a  great  and  mixed  audience  composed  of  friends  and  enemies  is 
certainly  impelled  to  be  more  careful  in  his  statements  of  facts  than  one  whr 
has  his  audience  all  to  himself.  He  is  much  less  liable  to  become  cpigrammati- 
cal  and  self-confident  jn  his  own  views  than  those  who  have  a  friendly  audience, 
where  nobody  opposes  or  puts  questions.  I  should  be  grieved  indeed  if  I  felt 
that  political  speaking  was  weakening  my  love  of  study  and  reflection  in  other 


THE    LIFE   OF   GEN.   JAMES    A.   CAUFIELD.  155 

directions.  I  thank  you  for  the  suggestions,  and  shall  keep  watch  of  myself  all 
the  more  in  consequence  of  them.  But  it  occurs  to  me  I  have  made  more 
speeches  of  the  kind  you  approve  within  the  last  six  mouths  than  of  the  kind 
you  disapprove.  For  example,  the  Henry  speech,  the  speech  on  the  Relation  of 
the  Government  to  Science,  the  Sugar  Tariff  speech,  the  speech  on  Mr. 
Schleicher,  the  Chicago  speech,  and  the  two  articles  in  the  North  American  Re 
view. 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  July  7, 1879. 

The  session  haa  been  a  most  uncomfortable  one  ;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  has 
been  valuable  in  the  new  class  of  topics  it  has  brought  into  discussion.  The 
Democrats  completely  abandoned  the  main  ground  which  they  at  first  took,  and 
the  most  sensible  among  them  do  not  hesitate  to  admit  privately  that  it  was 
wholly  untenable.  Instead  of  withholding  $45.000.000  of  appropriations  to  com 
pel  the  redress  of  grievances,  they  withheld  only  $BOO,000,  and  they  did  not  carry 
as  many  points  of  legislation  as  were  tendered  them  at  the  close  of  the  last  Con 
gress.  The  course  of  justice  can  only  be  kept  by  the  marshals  advancing  the 
necessary  money  and  running  the  risk  of  Congress  paying  them  hereafter  ;  but 
their  powers  and  official  authority  are  not  impaired.  .  .  . 

Partywise,  the  extra  session  has  united  the  Republicans  more  than  anything 
since  1868,  and  it  bids  fair  to  give  us  1880. 


CHAPTER  XUI. 

THE   LOUISIANA   COUNT   AND   OTHER   MATTERS. 

ROME  attempt  had  been  made  to  asperse  Garfield  on  account 
of  his  going  down  to  New  Orleans  as  one  of  the  "  visiting  states 
men,"  after  the  Presidential  election  of  1876.  The  attempt  was 
utterly  futile,  but  it  may  be  well  to  refer  to  the  actual  facts 
with  regard  to  this  visit.  At  the  request  of  President  Grant  he 
went  to  New  Orleans,  and  when  Mr.  Potter  afterward  came 
there  with  his  investigating  committee,  after  full  inquiry  he 
found  no  fault  whatever  with  Garfield's  conduct  in  his  report. 
Nobody  before  the  committee  charged  that  he  did  or  said  any 
unjust  or  unfair  thing.  What  he  did,  and  all  he  did,  was  to 
examine  very  carefully  the  testimony  in  relation  to  the  election 
in  one  parish,  West  Feliciana,  and  to  write  out  a  careful,  brief, 
and  judicial  statement  of  the  official  testimony  as  to  the  con 
duct  of  the  election  there,  and  bring  out  his  own  conclusions, 
which  formed  a  part  of  the  general  report  ;  but  his  report  on 
West  Feliciana  was  written  separately.  In  it  he  analyzed  the 
Ku-Klux  Rifle  Club  movement  in  that  parish  which  broke  up 
the  election,  and  confined  himself  to  that.  He  is  perfectly  will 
ing  to  stand  on  everything  he  did  there  as  being  straight  and 
true  and  fair. 

When  the  "  visiting  statesmen  "  returned,  and  the  question 
of  counting  the  electoral  votes  came  up,  an  effort  was  finally 
made  to  constitute  the  Electoral  Commission,  on  the  assump 
tion  that  the  Vice-President  had  not  the  right  to  count  the  vote, 
but  that  Congress  had  the  exclusive  right  to  count  it.  He  made 
a  speech  on  this  subject  on  the  28th  of  January,  1877,  in  which 
he  took  the  ground  that  the  Vice-President  had  the  right  under 
the  Constitution  to  count  the  vote  ;  that  Congress  would  be 
committing  a  usurpation  if  it  imdertook  to  count  it ;  that  Con- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEX.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  157 

gress  was  only  present  as  a  witness  of  a  great,  solemn  ceremony, 
and  not  as  an  actor,  and  he  voted  against  the  bill  establishing 
the  Electoral  Commission.  He  was  opposed  to  it  on  principle. 
The  bill  itself  was  due  largely  to  suggestions  from  the  Demo 
cratic  members— not  of  a  majority,  but  of  a  few  influential  men. 
It  was  also  supported  by  prominent  Republicans.  The  Demo 
crats  joined  heartily  in  sustaining  it,  and  defended  it  as  from 
high  and  patriotic  principles.  It  afterward  appeared  that  they 
believed  that  Judge  Davis  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  had  be 
come  almost  if  not  quite  a  Democrat,  would  hold  the  casting 
vote  and  count  in  Mr.  Tilden.  Mr.  Henry  B.  Payne,  of  Ohio, 
afterward  admitted,  in  a  speech  in  Cleveland,  that  he  and  his 
Democratic  colleagues  would  not  have  passed  the  Electoral  bill 
had  they  not  supposed  that  Judge  Davis  would  be  a  member  of 
the  committee.  Garfield  had  voted  against  the  Electoral  bill, 
%nd  spoken  against  it,  yet  when  it  was,  by  common  consent  of 
«ome  of  the  ablest  and  most  patriotic  members  of  both  Houses 
of  Congress,  decided  that  the  Electoral  Commission  should  be 
constituted,  and  that  the  Republicans  should  have  two  members 
of  the  Commission  from  the  House  and  the  Democrats  three, 
when  the  Republicans  met  they  first  and  unanimously  selected 
Garfield  as  the  man  to  represent  them,  and  then  chose  Mr.  George 
F.  Hoar,  now  Senator,  and  lately  the  chairman  of  the  Chicago 
Convention.  Garfield  accepted  the  appointment  to  serve,  but 
regarded  it  as  he  would  service  on  a  committee.  He  did  not 
believe  that  the  Electoral  Commission  was  a  constitutional 
body,  but  merely  a  select  committee  appointed  by  Congress  to 
make  a  report,  which  was  subject  to  rejection  by  both  Houses 
of  Congress  ;  and  it  is  singular  that  the  Democrats  who  sus 
tained  Mr.  John  Bigelow's  able  argument  in  favor  of  the  abso 
lute  power  of  Congress  to  count  the  votes  have  forgotten,  or 
failed  to  see,  that  it  is  entirely  immaterial  whether  or  not  the 
Electoral  Commission  was  either  a  constitutional  body  or  a  just 
and  conscientious  committee.  It  was  the  action  of  Congress 
on  the  report  of  the  Electoral  Commission  which  made  the 
count  effectual  and  constitutional,  and  on  any  theory  whatever 


158  THE   LIFE   OP   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

this  action  gave  to  Mr.  Hayes  a  title  as  valid  as  has  been  pos 
sessed  by  any  President. 

On  the  inauguration  of  Hayes  to  the  Presidency  the  Repub 
lican  party  was  considerably  divided  and  demoralized.  It  was 
reunited  and  vindicated  by  the  report  of  the  Potter  Committee, 
which,  having  set  out  to  authenticate  Democratic  scandals, 
ended  by  the  discovery  of  scandals  of  a  much  more  serious  na 
ture  affecting  their  own  candidate.  At  that  period  Garfield 
held  the  difficult  position  of  a  leader  who  was  trying  to  protect 
his  party  from  divisions,  which  he  only  succeeded  in  doing  by 
keeping  the  minority  for  six  months  from  having  a  caucus,  ex 
cept  to  meet  and  choose  officers  or  to  do  some  unimportant  and 
unexciting  business.  There  was  no  caucus  in  this  period  held 
for  the  purpose  of  declaring  party  principles  or  policies. 

In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  state,  as  showing  the  recogni 
tion  of  Garfield's  leadership  by  his  party  associates  in  the  House, 
that  after  Mr.  Blainc  went  to  the  Senate  Gartield  was  unani 
mously  voted  for  as  their  candidate  for  Speaker.  He  was  thus 
sustained  three  successive  times — once  after  Kerr  died,  during 
Li's  term  as  Speaker,  and  when  Randall  was  elected  for  the  short 
term ;  then  when  Randall  was  first  elected,  and  again  when  he 
was  re-elected  Speaker. 

There  was  a  strong  tendency  in  1877,  on  the  part  of  some  of 
the  Republican  leaders  in  both  Houses,  to  assail  President 
Haves  as  a  traitor  who  was  going  to  Johnson ize  the  party.  At 
first  the  defenders  of  the  Administration  were  comparatively 
few  ;  but  there  was  perfect  agreement  between  them  that  they 
would  prevent  any  serious  division  in  the  party,  so  far  as  possi 
ble,  and  there  was  no  party  caucus  of  the  Republican  members  of 
the  House  on  any  important  question  until  Mr.  Potter  made  his 
motion  for  an  investigation  of  the  title  of  President  Hayes. 
That  had  the  effect  to  bring  all  the  Republican  members  to 
gether.  A  caucus  was  held  which  denounced  the  Potter  Inves 
tigation  as  revolutionary,  and  worked  together  with  perfect 
harmony  ;  and  on  this  nucleus  of  support  to  one  of  the  cleanest, 
purest,  and  ablest  administrations  of  the  Government  in  all  its 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD.  159 

history,  was  gradually  developed  a  Republican  support  of  the 
administration  which  has  been  all  the  more  notable  that  it  has 
come  from  a  quiet  and  steadily  growing  recognition  by  Repub 
licans  of  the  ability,  fidelity  to  duty,  and  statesmanship  with 
which  the  President  and  his  constitutional  advisers  have  ful 
filled  their  duties  and  met  their  responsibilities.  GarfielcVs 
work  as  a  pacificator  of  the  party  was  very  effective.  He  is  a 
natural  conciliator,  having  no  selfish  or  personal  ends  in  view, 
absorbed  entirely  in  strengthening  his  party,  and  leading  it, 
through  honorable  paths,  to  lasting  successes.  His  ready 
abandonment  of  minor  causes  of  difference,  his  generous  spirit, 
his  inspiring  devotion  to  the  true  interests  of  the  party  have 
made  him  its  most  helpful  leader,  the  one  who  has  aroused  the 
fewest  antagonisms,  and  who  has  won  for  his  party  its  most 
honorable  triumphs. 

(Garjl  Id  to  B.  A.  ffinfidalt.) 

WASHINGTOX,  November  11,  1876. 

Last  evening  the  President  telegraphed  me  from  Philadelphia,  requesting 
me  to  go  to  New  Orleans  and  remain  until  the  vote  is  counted,  acting  as  a  wit 
ness  of  the  count.  I  WHH  a  good  deal  embarrassed  by  the  request  for  several 
reasons.  First,  the  President  has  no  power  in  the  case,  and  I  could  only  act  in 
a  personal  and  irresponsible  way,  with  the  danger  that  I  might  be  considered  an 
intermeddler ;  second,  I  did  not  know  who  else  was  going,  and  I  might  find 
myself  associated  with  violent  partisan  Republicans,  who  mean  to  count  our 
side  in  per  fas  or  nefus.  In  that  case  I  should  be  called  upon  either  to  assent  to 
the  injustice  or  to  make  a  report  which  would  call  down  upon  me  all  the  passion 
of  this  passionate  hour.  Of  course  neither  of  these  situations  is  pleasant  to  con 
template.  I  might  escape  from  both  by  declining  to  go,  but  it  may  be  a  duty  of 
the  very  highest  sort,  which  I  have  no  right  to  decline  on  any  personal  ground. 

8.30r.M.— At  four  o'clock  this  afternoon  J  called  on  the  President.  He 
showed  me  a  list  of  gentlemen  whom  he  hud  invited  to  go  to  New  Orleans.  I 
have  concluded  to  go,  and  shall  leave  at  midnight.  I  go  with  great  reluctance, 
but  feel  it  to  be  a  duty  from  which  I  cannot  shrink. 


(Garfleld  to  the  Hon.  C.  C.  Hill,  Boston,  Maw.) 

NEW  ORLEANS,  LA.,  November  18,  1876. 

The  present  political  situation  is  a  very  grave  one  and  some  of  its  aspects 
fill  me  with  solicitude.  I  think  it  is  the  duty  of  all  good  citizens  to  discourage 
all  violent  feeling.  The  day  of  choice  is  past.  Neither  yon  nor  I  have  any 
longer  any  right  to  push  our  preferences.  That  effort  was  ended  on  the  7th  in- 


1GO  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 


st.ant.    Our  chief  concern  should  now  be  to  ascertain  what  the  choice  was,  and 
then  to  insist,  thut  the  choice  shall  be  onr  law. 

It .is  most  uiiforinnate  that  the  result  should  turn  upon  the  vote  of  a  State 
so  pecnlinrly  and  delicately  situated  as  Louisiana.  The  whole  stress  and  strain 
of  public  passion  thus  presses  upon  the  weakest  and  wort-t  place.  The  official 
report  of  the  State  Board  of  Canvassers  cannot  be  completed  in  le>s  than  ten 
days.  They  begin  their  work  to-day,  and  will  invite  a  delegation  of  both  politi 
cal  parties  to  join  as  spectators.  I  shall  try  to  get  excused  from  being  on  the 
delegation  if  possible,  for  I  want  to  go  home.  But  it  now  appears  probable  I 
shall  be  compelled  to  remain  until  the  count  is  complete. 

T  started  for  this  place  on  the  urgent  request  of  the  President.  I  have  been 
so  depressed  in  spirit  by  the  loss  of  our  precious  little  boy  that  I  have  hardly 
had  the  heart  to  write  at  all. 

(Garfleld  toS.A.  ffirusdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  4, 1877. 

When  T  reflect  that  it  is  now  more  than  sixteen  years  since  I  have  been  for 
a  moment  free  from  the  responsibilities  of  public  life,  I  seem  to  have  become 
the  slave  of  others,  and  hardly  at  all  free  to  follow  the  plans  of  personal  culture 
of  which  I  once  dreamed  and  hoped  ;  and  so  I  join  you  in  much  dissatisfaction 
with  my  past,  and  yet  I  suppose  we  should  feel  the  same  in  anv  course  of  life 
we  might  have  pursued. 

I  appreciate  what  you  say  of  the  political  situation.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
whatever  man  is  inaugurated  President  will  go  in  wilhacloud  upon  his  title,  in 
the  estimation  ot  many  men,  but  the  behavior  of  a  great  nation  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  its  laws  at  a  critical  moment  is  more  important  than  the  faie  of  any 
one  man  or  party.  We  have  reached  the  place  where  the  road  is  marked  by  no 
footprint,  and  we  must  make  a  direct  line  to  be  fit  to  follow  after  we  are  dead. 
It  is  only  at  such  times  that  the  domain  of  law  is  enlarged  and  the  safeguard  of 
liberty  is  increased.  I  confess  to  you  that  I  do  not  feel  adequate  to  the  task  ;  but 
I  shall  do  my  best  to  point  out  a  worthy  way  to  the  light  and  the  right. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  March  10,  187~. 

It  is  due  to  Hayes  that  we  stand  by  him  and  give  his  policy  a  fair  trial.  T 
understand  he  wants  me  to  stay  in  the  House.  I  shall  see  him  this  evening  ami 
if  he  is  decided  in  his  \\  islies  on  ihat  point,  I  shall  probably  decline  to  be  a  can 
didate  for  the  Senate.  On  many  accounts  I  would  like  to  take  that  place,  but,  it 
seems  to  fall  to  my  lot  to  make  the  sacrifice.  It  is  probable,  though  not  certain, 
that  I  could  be  elected  if  I  ran. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

OCCASIONAL   SPEECHES. 

IT  is  wonderful,  considering  all  of  his  other  activities  and 
with  his  multifarious  studies,  that  Garfield  has  found  the  time 
to  deliver  so  many  addresses  of  a  non-political  character.  It  is 
impossible  to  consider  even  a  small  proportion  of  these  efforts, 
all  of  which  are  interesting,  many  of  which  are  important,  and 
some  of  which  deserve  to  be  ranked  among  the  first  class  of 
productions  of  their  sort. 

His  oration  on  the  first  great  occasion  of  decorating  the  graves 
of  Union  soldiers  is  a  type  of  one  class  of  purely  patriotic  efforts. 
It  was  delivered  at  Arlington  Heights,  to  a  most  distinguished 
audience,  consisting  of  the  President,  his  Cabinet,  a  large  num 
ber  of  members  of  Congress,  and  eminent  citizens  from  all  parts 
of  the  country,  and  amid  surroundings  peculiarly  calculated  to 
inspire  any  speaker  as  susceptible  and  impressible  as  Garfield. 
It  was  the  first  considerable  memorial  service  of  the  sort  ob 
served  anywhere  in  the  Union,  occurring  on  the  30th  of  May, 
1868.  At  the  very  opening,  he  admitted  that  he  was  oppressed 
with  a  sense  of  the  impropriety  of  uttering  words  on  such  an 
occasion.  Said  he  : 


"  If  silence  is  ever  golden,  it  must  be  here,  beside  the  graves 
of  fifteen  thousand  men,  whose  lives  were  more  significant  than 
speech,  and  whose  death  was  a  poem  the  music  of  which  can 
never  be  sung.  With  words,  we  make  promises,  plight  faith, 
praise  virtue.  Promises  may  not  be  kept ;  plighted  faith  may 
be  broken  ;  and  vaunted  virtue  may  be  only  the  cunning  mask  of 
vice.  We  do  not  know  one  promise  these  men  made,  one  pledge 
they  gare,  one  word  they  spoke  ;  but  we  do  know  they  sum 
med  up  and  perfected,  by  one  supreme  act,  the  highest  virtues 
of  men  and  citizens.  For  love  of  country  they  accepted  death  ; 


162  THE   LIFE  OF   GEN.  JAMES    A.  GARFIELD. 

and  thus  resolved  all  doubts,  and  made  immortal  their  patriot 
ism  and  their  virtue. 

44  For  the  noblest  man  that  lives  there  still  remains  a  conflict. 
He  must  still  -withstand  the  assaults  of  time  and  fortune  ;  must 
still  be  assailed  with  temptations  before  which  lofty  natures 
have  fallen.  But  with  these,  the  conflict  ended,  the  victory  was 
won,  when  death  stamped  on  them  the  great  seal  of  heroic 
character,  and  closed  a  record  which  years  can  never  blot."- 

One  oratorical  passage  in  this  beautiful  tribute  to  the  gallant 
dead  will  be  appreciated  by  all  those  who  have  beheld  the  im 
pressive  scene  which  is  spread  out  in  front  of  the  visitor  to  Ar 
lington  Heights.  Said  he  : 

"  The  view  from  this  spot  bears  some  resemblance  to  that  which 
greets  the  eye  at  Rome.  In  sight  of  the  Capitoline  Hill,  up 
and  across  the  Tiber,  and  overlooking  the  city,  is  a  hill,  not 
rugged  or  lofty,  but  known  as  the  Vatican  Mount.  At  the  be 
ginning  of  the  Christian  Era,  an  imperial  circus  stood  on  its 
summit.  There,  gladiator  slaves  died  for  the  sport  of  Rome, 
and  wild  beasts  fought  with  wilder  men.  In  that  arena,  a  Gal 
ilean  fisherman  gave  up  his  life  a  sacrifice  for  his  faith.  No 
human  life  was  ever  so  nobly  avenged.  On  that  spot  was 
reared  the  proudest  Christian  temple  ever  built  by  human 
hands.  For  its  adornment  the  rich  offerings  of  every  clime  and 
kingdom  had  been  contributed.  And  now,  after  eighteen  cen 
turies, the  hearts  of  two  hundred  million  people  turn  toward  it 
with  reverence  when  they  worship  God.  As  the  traveller  de 
scends  the  Apennines,  he  sees  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's  rising  above 
the  desolate  Campagna  and  the  dead  city,  long  before  the  Seven 
Hills  and  ruined  palaces  appear  to  his  view.  The  fame  of  the 
dead  fisherman  has  outlived  the  glory  of  the  Eternal  City.  A 
noble  life,  crowned  with  heroic  death,  rises  above  and  outlives 
the  pride  and  pomp  and  glory  of  the  mightiest  empire  of  the 
earth." 

Probably  the  memorial  effort  that  gave  him  the  greatest  de 
gree  of  thought  and  labor,  and  even  apprehension,  was  the 
eulogy  on  General  George  H.  Thomas,  which  he  delivered  to 
his  comrades  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  at  Cleveland,  on 
the  25th  of  November,  1870.  No  man  had  a  deeper  apprecia 
tion  of  the  massive  and  majestic  character  of  Thomas  than  Gar- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GE2ST.  JAMES   A.   GA11F1ELD.  163 

field,  for  he  had  been  associated  with  Thomas  in  the  closest 
official  and  personal  relations,  and  between  them  there  had 
sprung  up  a  friendship  of  extraordinary  strength.  It  is  gen 
erally  conceded  that  this  eulogy  upon  Thomas  is  by  far  the 
ablest,  the  justest,  and  the  most  eloquent  tribute  ever  paid  by 
an  orator  to  the  great  Virginia  soldier.  As  a  review  of  Thom 
as's  personal  and  military  career,  as  a  defense  against  malignant 
accusations  from  treasonable  sources,  and  as  a  rhetorical  picture 
of  a  character  of  singular  individuality  and  grandeur,  it  is  with 
out  blemish,  and  comes  up  to  the  highest  standard.  His  por 
trait  of  Thomas  will  go  down  to  history  as  a  masterly  descrip 
tion  of  a  magnificent  specimen  of  manhood.  Said  he  : 

"  I  know  that  each  of  you  here  present  sees  him  in  memory  at 
this  moment,  as  we  often  saw  him  in  life  ;  erect  and  strong,  like  a 
tower  of  solid  masonry  ;  his  broad,  square  shoulders  and  massive 
head  ;  his  abundant  hair  and  full  beard  of  light,  brown,  sprinkled 
with  silver  ;  his  broad  forehead,  full  face,  and  features  that 
would  appear  colossal  but  for  their  perfect  harmony  of  propor 
tion  ;  his  clear  complexion,  with  just  enough  color  to  assure 
you  of  robust  health  and  a  well-regulated  life  ;  his  face  lighted 
up  by  an  eye  which  was  cold  gray  to  his  enemies,  but  warm, 
deep  blue  to  his  friends  ;  not  a  man  of  iron,  but  of  live  oak. 
His  attitude,  form,  and  features  all  assured  you  of  inflexible 
firmness,  of  inexpugnable  strength,  while  his  welcoming  smile 
set  every  feature  aglow  with  a  kindness  that  won  your  manliest 
affection.  If  thus  in  memory  you  see  his  form  and  features, 
even  more  vividly  do  you  remember  the  qualities  of  his  mind 
and  heart.  His  body  was  the  fitting  type  of  his  intellect  and 
character  ;  and  you  saw  both  his  intellect  and  character  tried 
again  and  again  in  the  fiery  furnace  of  war,  and  by  other  tests 
not  less  searching.  Thus,  comrades,  you  see  him  ;  and  your 
memories  supply  a  thousand  details  which  complete  and  adorn 
the  picture.  I  beg  you,  therefore,  to  supply  the  deficiency  of 
my  work  from  these  living  phototypes  in  your  own  hearts." 

His  description  of  the  secret  of  Thomas's  success  is  to  so  large 
a  degree  applicable  to  his  own  career  that  it  has  an  autobiogra 
phical  interest.  Said  he  : 

"  Thomas's  life  is  a  notable  illustration  of  the  virtue  and 


104  THE  LIFE   OF  GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

power  of  bard  work  ;  and  in  the  last  analysis  the  power  to  do 
hard  work  is  only  another  name  for  talent.  Professor  Church, 
one  of  his  instructors  at  West  Point,  says  of  his  student  life, 
that  '  he  never  allowed  anything  to  escape  a  thorough  examina 
tion,  and  left  nothing  behind  that  he  did  not  fully  comprehend.' 
And  so  it  was  in  the  army.  To  him  a  battle  was  neither  an 
earthquake,  nor  a  volcano,  nor  a  chaos  of  brave  men  and  frantic 
horses,  involved  in  vast  explosions  of  gunpowder.  It  \vas 
rather  a  eaim  rational  concentration  of  force  against  force.  It 
was  a  question  of  lines  and  positions  ;  of  weight  and  of  metal, 
and  strength  of  battalions.  He  knew  that  the  elements  and 
forces  which  bring  victory  are  not  created  on  the  battle-field, 
but  must  be  patiently  elaborated  in  the  quiet  of  the  camp,  by 
the  perfect  organization  and  outfit  of  his  army.  His  remark  to 
a  captain  of  artillery  while  inspecting  a  battery,  is  worth  re 
membering,  for  it  exhibits  his  theory  of  success  :  '  Keep  every 
thing  in  order,  for  the  fate  of  a  battle  may  turn  on  a  buckle  or 
a  linchpin.1  He  understood  so  thoroughly  the  condition  of  his 
army,  and  its  equipment,  that  when  the  hour  of  trial  came,  he 
knew  how  great  a  pressure  it  could  stand,  and  how  hard  a  blow 
it  could  strike." 

Without  much  changing  of  words,  this  terse  characterization  of 
the  sources  of  Thomas's  adequacy  to  every  emergency  might  be 
applied  to  Garfield's  own  readiness  to  meet  the  numerous  criti 
cal  occasions  to  which  he  has  always  and  invariably  shown  his 
equality. 

As  is  well  known,  each  State  of  the  Union  has  the  right  to 
place  in  the  sculpture  gallery  of  the  old  Senate  chamber  two 
statues  representing  distinguished  citizens  of  the  Common 
wealth.  Their  reception  by  Congress  is  always  the  occasion  of 
memorial  speeches  by  those  members  who  are  supposed  to  be 
best  fitted  for  such  discourses.  On  the  19th  of  December,  1876, 
an  occasion  of  this  sort  occurred  in  the  House,  in  regard  to  the 
reception  of  the  statues  of  John  Winthvop  and  Samuel  Adams 
from  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  Garfield's  speech  wras  a  brief 
one,  but  it  was  marked  by  its  felicity  of  historical  allusion  and 
patriotic  sentiment.  Nothing,  for  instance,  could  be  more 
graceful,  in  the  way  of  a  compliment  to  two  great  States,  than 
this  passage  : 


THE    LIFE    OF    GEX.  JAMES    A.   GARFIELD.  1G5 

"  I  can  well  understand  that  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  em 
barrassed  by  her  wealth  of  historic  glory,  found  it  difficult  to 
make  the  selection.  And  while  the  distinguished  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Hoar]  was  so  fittingly  honoring  his 
State  by  portraying  that  happy  embarrassment,  I  was  reflecting 
that  the  sister-State  of  Virginia  will  encounter,  if  possible,  ;Y 
still  greater  difficulty  when  she  comes  to  make  the  selection  of 
her  immortals.  One  name  I  venture  to  hope  she  will  not 
select  ;  a  name  too  great  for  the  glory  of  any  one  State.  I 
trust  she  will  allow  us  to  claim  Washington  as  belonging  to  all 
States,  for  all  time.  If  she  shall  pass  over  the  great  distance 
that  separates  Washington  from  all  others,  I  can  hardly  imagine 
how  she  will  make  the  choice  from  her  crowded  roll.  But  I 
have  no  doubt  that  she  will  be  able  to  select  two  who  will  rep 
resent  the  great  phases  of  her  history  as  happily  and  worthily 
as  Massachusetts  is  represented  in  the  choice  she  has  to-day 
announced.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  happier  combination  of 
great  and  beneficent  forces  than  will  be  presented  by  the  rep 
resentative  heroes  of  these  two  great  States. 

u  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  were  the  two  focal  centres  from 
which  sprang  the  life-forces  of  this  Republic.  They  were,  in 
many  ways,  complements  of  each  other,  each  supplying  what 
the  other  lacked,  and  both  uniting  to  endow  the  Republic  with 
its  noblest  and  most  enduring  qualities." 

Nor  could  there  be  given  better  reasons  for  going  back  to 
Winthrop  and  Adams  as  the  especially  honored  representatives 
of  Massachusetts  in  the  Congressional  Pantheon  than  the 
following  : 

"  Indeed,  before  Winthrop  and  his  company  landed  at  Salem, 
the  Pilgrims  were  laying  the  foundations  of  civil  liberty.  While 
the  Mayflower  was  passing  Cape  Cod  and  seeking  an  anchor 
age,  in  the  midst  of  the  storm,  her  brave  passengers  sat  down 
in  the  little  cabin  and  drafted  and  signed  a  covenant  which 
contains  the  germ  of  American  liberty.  How  familiar  to  the 
American  habit  of  mind  are, these  declarations  of  the  Pilgrim 
covenant  of  1(520  : 

"  '  That  no  act,  imposition,  law,  or  ordinance  be  made  or  im 
posed  upon  us  at  present  or  to  come  but  such  as  has  been  or 
shall  be  enacted  by  the  consent  of  the  body  of  freemen  or  asso 
ciates,  or  their  representatives,  legally  assembled.' 

"  The  New  England  town  was  the  model,  the  primary  cell, 


1G6  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES    A.   GARFIELD. 

from  -which  OUT  Republic  was  evolved.  The  town  meeting  was 
the  germ  of  all  the  parliamentary  life  and  habits  of  Americans. 

"  John  Winthrop  brought  with  him  the  more  formal  organi 
zation  of  New  England  society  ;  and,  in  his  long  and  useful 
life,  did  more  than  perhaps  any  other  to  direct  and  strengthen 
its  growth. 

"  Nothing,  therefore,  could  be  more  fitting,  than  for  Massa 
chusetts  to  place  in  our  Memorial  Hall  the  statue  of  the  first  of 
the  Puritans,  representing  him  at  the  moment  when  he  was  step 
ping  on  shore  from  the  ship  that  brought  him  from  England, 
and  bearing  with  him  the  charter  of  that  first  political  society 
which  laid  the  foundations  of  our  country  ;  and  that  near  him 
should  stand  that  Puritan  embodiment  of  the  logic  of  the  Revo 
lution,  Samuel  Adams.  I  am  glad  to  see  this  decisive,  though 
tardy,  acknowledgment  of  his  great  and  signal  services  to 
America.  I  doubt  if  any  man  equalled  Samuel  Adams  in 
formulating  and  uttering  the  fierce,  clear,  and  inexorable  logic 
of  the  Revolution.  With  our  present  habits  of  thought,  we 
can  hardly  realize  how  great  were  the  obstacles  to  overcome. 
Not  the  least  was  the  religious  belief  of  the  fathers — that  alle 
giance  to  rulers  was  obedience  to  God.  The  thirteenth  chapter 
of  Romans  was  to  many  minds  a  barrier  against  revolution 
stronger  than  the  battalions  of  George  III.  : 

"' Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers.  For 
there  is  no  power  but  of  God  :  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained 
of  God.  Whosoever  therefore  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the 
ordinance  of  God.1 

"  And  it  was  not  until  the  people  of  that  religious  age  were 
led  to  see  that  they  might  obey  God  and  still  establish  liberty, 
in  spite  of  kingly  despotism,  that  they  were  willing  to  engage 
in  war  against  one  who  called  himself  '  king  by  the  grace  of 
God.'  The  men  who  pointed  out  the  pathway  to  freedom  by 
the  light  of  religion  as  well  as  of  law,  were  the  foremost  pro 
moters  of  American  Independence.  And  of  these,  Adams  was 
unquestionably  chief." 

His  concluding  paragraph  might  well  be  emblazoned  in  some 
conspicuous  place  in  the  halls  of  both  houses  of  Congress. 
Said  he  : 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  this  great  lesson  of  self-restraint  is  taught  in 
the  whole  history  of  the  Revolution  ;  and  it  is  this  lesson  that 
to-day,  more,  perhaps,  than  any  other  we  have  seen,  we  ought 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD.  167 

to  take  most  to  heart.  Let  us  seek  liberty  and  peace,  under  the 
law  ;  and,  following  the  pathway  of  our  fathers,  preserve  the 
great  legacy  they  have  committed  to  our  keeping." 

ON  the  16th  of  January,  1878,  General  Garfield  introduced 
into  the  House  of  Representatives  a  resolution  thanking  a  very 
liberal,  patriotic  and  philanthropic  lady  of  New  York,  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Thompson,  for  the  presentation  to  Congress  of 
Carpenter's  great  painting  of  President  Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet 
at  the  time  of  his  first  reading  of  the -proclamation  of  emanci 
pation,  and  accepting  of  her  gift.  On  the  12th  of  February  the 
formal  presentation  and  acceptance  of  the  painting  by  Congress 
occurred.  General  Gartield  was  selected  by  the  joint  order  of 
the  Senate  and  the  House,  and  on  behalf  of  Mrs.  Thompson,  to 
make  the  speech  of  the  occasion.  It  was  to  him  a  welcome 
task,  because  of  his  friendship  for  the  artist,  his  natural  love 
for  all  works  of  art,  particularly  those  which  illustrated  the 
history  of  our  own  country,  and  because  of  his  reverent  admira 
tion  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  His  speech  was  not  only  appropriate  to 
the  peculiar  occasion  which  gave  it  birth,  but  contained  an 
estimate  of  the  greatness  of  Lincoln  and  of  his  place  in  history 
which  is  singularly  just,  truthful  and  appreciative  ;  and  there 
in,  without  intending  it,  he  forecast,  with  considerable  simili 
tude,  the  position  which  he  was  to  occupy  among  the  leading 
men  of  his  own  party.  Much  that  he  said  in  this  passage,  of 
Lincoln  and  his  career,  will  be  found  applicable  to  himself  and 
his  own  career  : 

44  Let  us  pause  to  consider  the  actors  in  that  scene.  In  forc« 
of  character,  in  thoroughness  and  breadth  of  culture,  in  ex 
perience  of  public  affairs  and  in  national  reputation,  the  Cabi 
net  that  sat  around  that  council-board  has  had  no  superior, 
perhaps  no  equal,  in  our  history.  Seward,  the  finished  scholar, 
the  consummate  orator,  the  great  leader  of  the  Senate,  had 
come  to  crown  his  career  with  those  achievements  which  placed 
him  in  the  first  rank  of  modern  diplomatists.  Chase,  with  a 
culture  and  a  fame  of  massive  grandeur,  stood  as  the  rock  and 
pillar  of  the  public  credit,  the  noble  embodiment  of  the  public 


108  THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

faith.  Stanton  was  there,  a  very  Titan  of  strength,  the  great 
organizer  of  victory.  Eminent  lawyers,  men  of  business,  lead 
ers  of  States  and  leaders  of  men,  completed  the  group, 

44  But  the  man  who  presided  over  that  council,  who  inspired 
and  guided  its  deliberations,  was  a  character  so  unique  that  he 
stood  alone,  without  a  model  in  history  or  a  parallel  among 
men.  Born  on  this  day,  sixty-nine  years  ago,  to  an  inheritance 
of  extremest  poverty  ;  surrounded  by  the  rude  forces  of  the 
wilderness  ;  wholly  unaided  by  parents  ;  only  one  year  in  any 
school  ;  never,  for  a  day,  master  of  his  own  time  until  he 
reached  his  majority  ;  making  his  way  to  the  profession  of  the 
law  by  the  hardest  and  roughest  road  ;  yet  by  force  of  uncon 
querable  will  and  persistent,  patient  work,  he  attained  a  fore 
most  place  in  his  profession, 

• 

And,  moving:  np  from  high  to  higher, 
Became,  on  fori  line's  crowning  slope, 
The  pillar  of  a  people's  hope. 
The  center  of  a  world's  desire. 

"  At  first,  it  was  the  prevailing  belief  that  he  would  be  only 
the  nominal  head  of  his  administration  ;  that  its  policy  would 
be  directed  by  the  eminent  statesmen  he  had  called  to  his 
council.  How  erroneous  this  opinion  was,  may  be  seen  from  a 
single  incident  : 

"  Among  the  earliest,  most  difficult,  and  most  delicate 
duties  of  his  administration,  was  the  adjustment  of  our  rela 
tions  with  Great  Britain.  Serious  complications,  even  hostili 
ties  were  apprehended.  On  the  21st  of  May,  1861,  the  Secre 
tary  of  State  presented  to  the  President  his  draught  of  a  letter 
of  instructions  to  Minister  Adams,  in  which  the  position  of  the 
United  States  and  the  attitude  of  Great  Britain  were  set  forth 
with  the  clearness  and  force  which  long  experience  and  great 
ability  had  placed  at  the  command  of  the  Secretary, 

"•  Upon  almost  every  page  of  that  original  draught  are  eras 
ures,  additions,  and  marginal  notes  in  the  handwriting  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  which  exhibit  a  sagacity,  a  breadth  of  wis 
dom,  and  a  comprehension  of  the  whole  subject,  impossible  to 
be  found  except  in  a  man  of  the  very  first  order.  And  these 
modifications  of  a  great  state  paper  were  made  by  a  man  who, 
but  three  months  before,  had  entered,  for  the  first  time,  the 
wide  theatre  of  Executive  action. 

u  Gifted  with  an  insight  and  a  foresight  which  the  ancients 
would  have  called  divination,  he  saw,  in  the  midst  of  darkness 
and  obscurity,  the  logic  of  events,  and  forecast  the  result. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  169 

From  the  first,  in  his  own  quaint,  original  way,  without  osten 
tation  or  offense  to  his  associates,  he  was  pilot  and  commander 
of  his  administration.  He  was  one.  of  the  few  great  rulers 
whose  wisdom  increased  with  his  power,  and  whose  spirit  grew 
gentler  and  tenderer  as  his  triumphs  were  multiplied." 


CHAPTER  XV. 
GARFIELD'S  CAREER  AS  A  LAWYER. 

IN  undertaking  a  brief  review  of  Garfield's  career  as  a  lawyer, 
it  is  impossible  to  avoid  a  feeling  that  it  is  far  more  difficult  to 
impress  on  the  public  mind  a  fair  sense  of  what  he  has  achieved 
in  this  direction  of  activity  than  as  to  any  other  part  of  his  pub 
lic  life.  Everybody  knows  something  of  the  romantic  history 
of  his  early  struggles  for  education.  The  prominence  which  he 
rapidly  attained  in  the  army  and  his  brilliant  record  during  the 
period  of  his  service  are  equally  well  known.  In  Congress  he 
has  been,  for  over  half  a  generation,  conspicuous  in  the  debates 
on  all  the  living  issues  of  the  day.  But  there  are  few  who  kcow 

NOTE.— It  is  far  from  my  purpose  to  go  into  any  elaborate  exposure  of  the 
falsehoods,  misrepresentations,  insinuations,  and  misunderstandings  as  to  Gar. 
field's  official  integrity,  that  are  kept  alive  through  malice,  and  only  impose  on 
ignorance.  If  he  is  not  an  honest  man,  from  core  to  cuticle,  J  do  not  know  where 
to  find  an  honest  man  in  public  life.  But  he  has  perfectly  vindicated  himae]f.  and 
his  vindication  has  beeu  scattered  all  over  the  land.  I  have  before  me  a  copy  of 
the  Troy  Times,  whose  editor  would  be  the  last  man  to  help  cover  up  any  official 
shortcoming  or  offence  of  his  best  Mend,  which  contains,  in  full,  the  memora 
ble  speech  made  by  Garfield  to  his  constituents,  in  the  campaign  of  1874.  at 
Warren,  then  the  headquarters  of  the  most  disaffected  and  hostile  Republicans 
in  his  district.  At  every  stage  of  this  exhaustive  review  of  these  stale  scandals, 
that  are  now  daily  served  up  as  the  nutriment  of  the  unfortunate  readers  of 
extreme  Democratic  organs,  he  paused  for  questions.  I  never  read  a  manlier 
speech.  Every  accusation  and  innuendo  was  frankly  and  fully  met,  and  the  intelli 
gent  man  who  reads  it,  and  has  any  remaining  doubt  of  Garfield's  absolute 
integrity,  must  have  a  peculiar  and  unenviable  organization.  As  to  the  De 
Golyer  charge,  it  was  shown  to  be  utterly  absurd  and  baseless.  In  the  first  piace, 
Garfield,  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  was  bound  to  vote 
for  the  assessments  on  Federal  property  for  any  pavement  properly  peti 
tioned  for  by  a  certain  proportion  of  adjacent  property-holders.  He  simply 
undertook,  for  a  conditional  fee  of  fSOOO,  to  act  as  assistant  counsel  to  Mr. 
Parsons,  who  was  retained  by  the  owners  of  the  De  Golyer  pavement  patent. 
After  going  into  a  detailed  statement  of  all  the  facts  in  the  case,  covering  nearly 
two  columns,  he  was  interrupted  by  a  question.  I  give  both  question  and 


THE   LIFE   OP  GEX.  JAMES   A.  GAHFIELD.  171 

the  extent  of  his  ability  and  acquirements  in  the  higher  walks 
of  the  profession  which  he  adopted  before  going  into  the  army, 
but  did  not  practice  until  after  he  had  become  known  as  a 
statesman.  The  extent  of  the  lack  of  appreciation  of  what  Gar- 
field  has  actually  achieved  in  this  arduous  and  exacting  profes 
sion  is  shown  iii  the  common  statements  in  Democratic  papers, 
which  refer  to  the  malicious  De  Golyer  charge,  and  assume  that 
the  fee  which  he  received  from  De  Golyer  was  not  paid  to  him  pro 
fessionally,  because  he  was  not  entitled  to  large  fees  as  a  lawyer. 
Such  has  not  been  the  estimate  of  the  distinguished  advocates 
of  both  parties  who  have  tested  Garfield's  high  legal  ability  by 
actual  encounter  or  in  active  co-operation.  On  general  princi 
ples  it  is  difficult  for  any  man  to  obtain  a  high  reputation  in 
the  law  who  has  not  ascended  to  eminence  by  regular  gradation 
from  the  lowest  and  most  primary  stages  of  practice.  The  rule 
of  success  and  eminence  at  the  bar  is  generally  a  course  of 
patient  apprenticeship,  beginning  with  studying  in  a  lawyer's 

answer,  to  show,  by  a  single  example,  how  thorough  was  GarfielcTsmethod  of 
dealing  with  his  constituents  of  the  "  Western  Reserve,"  the  New  England 
of  the  West : 

"  Question  -General  Gai  field,  allow  me  to  ask  you  one  question  *  What 
question  of  law  was  submitted  to  you  in  that  case?  Was  it  a  question  of  law, 
or  a  question  of  the  difference  between  the  payments  ? 

"  General  Garfleld— There  were  questions  both  of  law  and  of  merit.  In  the 
first  place,  there  were  forty-two  different  kinds  of  pavement  presented.  If  the 
government  took  one,  there  might  be  a  question  of  conflicting  patents— there 
might  be  a  patent  lawsuit  growing  out  of  it — and  I  felt  it  to  be  my  first  duty  to 
inquire  whether  the  two  patents  that  extend  into  this  pavement  were  valid 
patents  that  could  properly  be  sustained.  I  made  that  examination  as  the  very 
•  first  step  1  took  in  the  case.  I  understand  that  the  Board  of  Public  Works  said 
that  they  did  not  care  very  much  about  that,  on  the  ground  that  they  would  not 
pay  a  royalty  in  any  case.  But  the  fact  was  fh'it  the  contractor  himself— the 
owner  of  the  patent— regarded  it  as  a  valuable  hu.ucb.ise,  aiul  the  validity  of  the 
patent  was  to  him  the  first  consideration. 

*'  Now,  where  there  are  forty  patents,  or  nearly  that,  concerned,  it  is  of  some 
importance  to  know  the  relative  validity  of  the  patents.''1 

And  yet  there  is  little  likelihood  that  Garfield's  wilful  defamers  will  not 
continue,  in  spite  of  this  plain  statement  of  the  work  he  did,  for  a  conditional 
fee,  to  reiterate  the  falsehood  that  he  did  nothing  professionally  in  return.  But 
this  sort  of  attack  has  never  prevented  the  election  of  any  American  public  man 
whose  career  had  been  anything  like  as  noble,  consistent,  and  honorable  a? 
Garfield's  has  been.  Mud-flinging  is  not  onlyfrie  meanest  of  occupations;  it 
ie  the  most  futile. 


173  THE    LIFE    OF    GE^.   JAMES    A.   GAKF1ELD. 

office,  and  peihaps  sweeping  the  same  for  a  year  or  two,  then  a 
period  of  clerkship  for  as  much  longer,  then  petty  practice  in 
inferior  courts  and  subordinate  positions  in  important  cases, 
until,  at  mature  age,  a  man  finally  becomes  recognized  as  a  law 
yer,  when  admittance  into  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  with  a  case  to  argue  there  is  considered  the  final  attesta 
tion  of  his  professional  standing.  Neither  as  regards  attaining 
eminence  in  the  law  nor  in  any  other  line  of  intellectual  effort 
has  Garfield  pursued  the  beaten  and  common  path.  It  so  hap 
pened  that  the  first  case  in  which  he  ever  appeared  was  one  of 
the  most  important  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  for  many  years.  lie  thus,  to  use  a  sailor's  maxim, 
"jumped  in  through  the  cabin  windows,"  apparently.  But  it 
was  not  true  that  he  attained  this  position  by  boldness  or  good 
luck.  As  in  the  case  of  his  readiness  for  all  great  questions  of 
statesmanship,  he  had  done  the  work  and  pursued  the  studies 
which  enabled  him,  on  his  first  appearance  in  this  new  arena,  to 
take  his  place  among  the  fiist  men  in  the  country.  He  had 
studied  law  as  thoroughly  as  any  of  the  legal  practitioners  in 
his  neighborhood — studied  it  in  its  principles  and  in  its  illus 
trations  in  English  and  American  history,  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1861  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio.  He  was  about 
to  form  a  law  partnership  and  to  go  into  practice  when  the  war 
broke  out,  but  had  never  tried  a  case,  nor  argued  one,  nor  had 
anything  to  do  with  one,  until  he  appeared  as  one  of  the  coun 
sel  in  the  famous  Milligan  case,  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States. 

On  the  18th  of  January,  1865,  Henry  Winter  Davis  of  Mary 
land  and  General  Garfield  made  very  energetic  protests  against 
the  arbitrary  exercise  of  powers  by  the  subordinates  of  the  Sec 
retary  of  War.  No  two  members  of  the  House  had  been  more 
devoted  or  energetic  in  the  support  of  every  measure  essential  to 
the  prosecution  of  the  war  ;  but  in  both  the  love  of  civil  liberty 
was  a  controlling  sentiment.  Both  were  admirers  of  the  tre 
mendous  working  powers  and  efficiency  of  Mr.  Stanton.  Both 
were  too  manly  to  witness  without  indignation  the  tyrannical  and 


THE  LIFE  OF  GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  173 

lawless  acts  which  were  committed  by  some  of  Mr.  Stanton's 
subordinates.  General  Gartield  had  had  his  quick  sympathies 
excited  by  a  visit  to  what  was  known  as  the  Old  Capitol  mili 
tary  prison,  and  spoke  with  a  warmth  which  excited  consider 
able  attention  at  the  time.  He  spoke  of  the  case  of  one  officer 
who  had  been  confined  for  five  months  in  that  prison  and  had 
not  been  furnished  even  with  a  copy  of  the  charges  against 
him,  although  he  had  frequently  demanded  to  know  with  what 
crime  he  was  charged.  This  man  bore  on  his  person  honorable 
scars  received  .n  the  service  of  his  country.  He  was  a  colonel, 
and  was  the  victim  of  the  vengeance  of  some  unknown  enemy. 
Garfield,  alluding  to  the  fact  that  there  were  many  alleged 
cases  where  officers  and  citizens  after  being  confined  for  a  long 
period  had  been  allowed  to  go  out  without  a  word  of  explana 
tion  concerning  either  the  arrest  or  the  discharge,  made  this 
manly  appeal  : 

u  I  ask  the  House  of  Representatives  whether  that  kind  of 
practice  is  to  grow  up  under  this  Government,  and  no  man  is  to 
raise  his  voice  against  it  or  make  any  inquiry  concerning  it  lest 
some  one  should  say  he  is  factious,  he  is  unfriendly  to  the  War 
Department,  he  is  opposing  the  administration.  Gentlemen,  if 
we  are  not  men  in  our  places  here,  let  us  stop  our  ears  to  all  com 
plaints.  Let  every  department  do  as  it  pleases,  and  with  meek 
ness  #nd  in  silence  vote  whatever  appropriations  are  asked  for. 
I  do  not  say,  for  I  do  not  know,  that  the  head  of  any  depart 
ment  is  responsible  for  these  things,  or  knows  them.  It  may 
be  that  they  have  been  done  by  subordinates.  It  may  be  that 
the  heads  of  the  departments  are  not  cognizant  of  the  facts.  I 
make  no  accusation  ;  but  I  do  say  that  it  is  our  business  to  see 
that  the  laws  be  respected,  and  that  if  a  man  has  no  powerful 
friend  in  court  he  shall  at  least  find  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  his  friend.  I  hope  the  resolution  will  not  be  recon 
sidered,  and  I  renew  the  motion  to  lay  on  the  table  the  motion 
to  reconsider. " 

On  calling  the  roll  there  were  136  yeas  and  only  5  nays,  the 
latter  including  Mr.  Spalding  and  Thaddeus  Stevens  ;  the  im« 


174  THE  LIFE   OF  GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

mediate  effect  of  which  energetic  protests  of  Garfield  and  Henry 
Winter  Davis- was  a  large  jail  delivery  from  the  Old  Capitol 
prison  the  very  next  day. 

Garfield  based  his  resistance  on  the  broad  grounds  which  he 
had  learned  in  the  history  of  the  development  of  Anglo-Saxon 
liberty.  About  that  time  that  great  lawyer.  Judge  Jeremiah 
S.  Black,  as  the  Attorney  of  the  Indiana  Democrats  who  had 
been  opposing  the  war,  came  to  his  friend  Garfield  and  said  that 
there  were  some  men  imprisoned  in  Indiana  for  conspiracy 
against  the  Government  in  trying  to  prevent  enlistments,  and  to 
encourage  desertion.  Thev  "yiad  been  tried  in  1864,  while  the 
war  was  going  on,  and,  by  a  military  commission  sitting  in  In 
diana,  where  there  was  no  war,  they  had  been  sentenced  to 
death.  Mr.  Lincoln  commuted  the  sentence  to  imprisonment  for 
life,  and  they  were  put  into  State  prison  in  accordance 
with  the  commutation.  They  then  took  out  a  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  to  test  the  constitutionality  and  legality  of  their  trial, 
and  the  judges  in  the  Circuit  Court  had  disagreed,  there  being 
two  of  them,  and  certified  their  disagreement  up  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  Judge  Black  said  to  Garfield  that 
he  had  seen  what  Garfield  had  said  in  Congress,  and  asked  him 
if  he  was  willing  to  say  in  an  argument  in  the  Supreme  Court 
what  he  had  advocated  in  Congress,,  to  which  Garfield  replied, 
"  It  depends  upon  your  case  altogether."  Judge  Black  sent  him 
the  facts  in  the  case— the  record.  Garfield  read  it  over  and  said, 
"  I  believe  in  that  doctrine."  To  which  Judge  Black  replied, 
"  Young  man,  you  know  it  is  a  perilous  thing  for  a  young  Re 
publican  in  Congress  to  say  that,  and  I  don't  want  you  to  injure 
yourself."  Said  Garfield,  u  It  does  not  make  any  difference.  I 
believe  in  English  liberty  and  English  law.  But,"  continued 
he,  "Judge  Black,  I  am  not  a  practitioner  in  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  I  never  tried  a  case  in  my  life  anywhere."  Judge 
Black  asked,  "  How  long  ago  were  you  admitted  to  the  barf" 
"  Just  about  six  years  ago."  "That  will  do,"  Black  replied, 
and  he  took  Garfield  thereupon  over  to  the  Supreme  Court  and 
moved  his  admission.  He  immediately  entered  upon  the  cdn- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKF1ELD.  175 

sideration  of  this  important  case.  On  the  side  of  the  Govern 
ment  was  arrayed  a  formidable  amount  of  legal  talent.  The 
Attorney-General  was  aided  by  General  Butler,  who  was  called 
in  on  account  of  his  military  knowledge,  and  by  Henry  Stan- 
bery.  Associated  with  General  Garfield  as  counsel  for  the  pe 
titioners  were  two  of  the  greatest  lawyers  in  the  country — Judge 
Black  and  the  Hon.  David  Dudley  Field — and  the  Hon.  John  E. 
McDonald,  now  Senator  from  Indiana.  The  argument  submitted 
by  General  Garfield  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  ever  made 
before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  was  made 
under  circumstances  peculiarly  creditable  to  Garfield's  courage, 
independence,  and  resolute  devotion  to  the  cause  of  constitu 
tional  liberty — a  devotion  not  inspired  by  wild  dreams  of  polit 
ical  promotion,  for  at  that  time  it  was  dangerous  for  any  young 
Republican  Congressman  to  defend  the  constitutional  rights  of 
men  known  to  be  disloyal,  and  rightly  despised  and  hated  for 
their  disloyal  practices. 

Merely  as  a  lawyer-like  presentation  of  the  case,  Garfield's 
argument  is  worthy  of  special  study  and  commendation.  It  ex 
hibits,  not  the  skill  and  adroitness  of  a  practiced  case-lawyer, 
or  of  a  lawyer  whose  mind  has  been  cramped  and  narrowed  by 
the  study  of  mere  precedents  and  technicalities  ;  but  it  is  a  logi 
cal  and  philosophical  development  of  the  doctrines  and  pur 
poses  of  the  Constitution,  of  the  careful  limitation  of  the  military 
as  of  all  other  powers,  and  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
civil  liberty. 

At  the  very  outset  of  his  masterly  argument  he  affirmed  that 
every  citizen  of  the  United  States  is  under  dominion  of  law  ; 
that  whether  he  be  a  civilian,  a  sailor,  or  a  soldier,  the  Constitu 
tion  provides  for  him  a  tribunal  before  which  he  may  be  protected 
if  innocent,  and  punished  if  guilty  of  crime.  Thereupon  he 
proceeded  to  show  the  development  of  the  true  theory  of  the 
Constitution  by  the  practice  of  the  fathers,  by  the  decisions  of 
our  courts,  and  by  the  precedents  from  the  English  practice. 
Throughout  the  whole  sweep  of  this  reasoning  there  is  shown 
that  mastery  of  English  and  American  history  which  some  of 


1?G  THE   LIFE   OF   GEX.  JAMES   A.  GA11FIELD. 

our  most  eminent  lawyers  fail  to  attain.  After  establishing  his 
propositions  by  an  impregnable  array  of  precedents,  the  glow 
of  the  patriotic  statesman  entered  into  the  argument  of  the  law 
yer.  Speaking  of  these  precedents,  he  said  : 


u  They  enable  us  to  trace  from  its  far-off  source  the  prog 
ress  and  development  of  Anglo-Saxon  liberty  ;  its  innumer 
able  conflicts  with  irresponsible  power  ;  its  victories,  dearly 
bought,  but  always  won — victories  which  have  crowned 
with  immortal  honors  the  institutions  of  England,  and  left  their 
indelible  impress  upon  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind.  These  princi 
ples  our  fathers  brought  with  them  to  the  new  world,  and 
guarded  with  sleepless  vigilance  and  religious  devotion.  In  its 
darkest  hour  of  trial,  during  the  late  rebellion,  the  Republic  did 
not  forget  them.  So  completely  have  they  been  impressed  on 
the  minds  of  American  lawyers,  so  thoroughly  have  they  beeu 
ingrained  into  the  very  fibre  of  American  character,  that  not 
withstanding  the  citizens  of  eleven  States  went  off  into  wild  re 
bellion,  broke  their  oaths  of  allegiance  to  the  Constitution,  and 
levied  war  against  their  country,  yet  with  all  their  crimes  upon 
them,  there  was  still  in  the  mmds  of  those  men,  during  all  the 
struggle,  so  deep  and  enduring  an  impression  on  this  great  sub 
ject,  that  even  during  the  rebellion  the  courts  of  the  Southern 
States  adjudicated  causes  like  the  one  now  before  you,  in  favor 
of  the  civil  law  and  against  court-martials  established  under 
military  authority  for  the  trial  of  citizens.  In  Texas,  Missis 
sippi,  Virginia,  and  other  insurgent  States,  by  the  order  of  the 
rebel  President,  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  suspended,  mar 
tial  law  was  declared,  and  provost-marshals  were  appointed  to 
administer  military  authority.  But  when  civilians,  arrested  by 
military  authority,  petitioned  for  release  by  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
in  every  case,  save  one,  the  writ  was  granted,  and  it  was  decided 
that  there  could  be  no  suspension  of  the  writ  or  declaration  of 
martial  law  by  the  Executive,  or  by  any  other  than  the  supreme 
legislative  authority." 


No  Democratic  statesman  who  has  used  the  grand  doctrines 
of  American  and  civil  liberty  as  an  ambush  behind  which  to 
fight  the  prosecution  of  the  war  for  liberty  and  the  Union  has 
ever  stated  more  broadly  the  English  and  American  doctrines 


THE  LIFE   OF  GEtf.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  177 

than  this  young  and  ambitious  Republican  politician  stated  it  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  first  case  \vhich 
ever  tested  his  ability  and  his  manhood.  Said  he  : 

4<  And  yet,  if  this  military  commission  could  legally  try  these 
petitioners,  its  authority  rested  only  upon  the  will  of  a  single 
man.  If  it  had  the  right  to  try  the  petitioners,  it  had  the  right 
to  try  any  civilian  in  the  United  States  ;  it  had  the  right  to  try 
your  Honors,  for  you  are  civilians.  The  learned  gentlemen  tell 
us  that  necessity  justifies  martial  law.  But  what  is  the  nature 
of  that  necessity  ?  If  at  this  moment,  Lee,  with  his  rebel  army 
at  one  end  of  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  and  Grant,  with  the  army 
of  the  Union  at  the  other,  with  hostile  banners  and  roaring  guns, 
were  approaching  this  Capitol,  the  sacred  seat  of  justice  and 
law,  I  have  no  doubt  they  would  expel  your  Honors  from  the 
bench,  and  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  from  their 
halls.  The  jurisdiction  of  battle  would  supersede  the  jurisdic 
tion  of  law.  This  Court  would  be  silenced  by  the  thunders  of 
war. 

"If  an  earthquake  should  shake  the  City  of  Washington,  and 
tumble  this  Capitol  in  ruins  about  us,  it  would  drive  your  Hon 
ors  from  the  bench,  and  for  the  time  volcanic  law  would  super 
sede  the  Constitution. 

"  If  the  Supreme  Court  of  Herculaneum  or  Pompeii  had  been 
in  session  when  the  fiery  rain  overwhelmed  those  cities,  its  au 
thority  would  have  been  suddenly  usurped  and  overthrown,  but 
I  question  the  propriety  of  calling  that  law  which,  in  its  very 
nature,  is  a  destruction  or  suspension  of  all  law." 

As  to  the  specious  and  dangerous  plea  of  necessity,  he  was 
equally  explicit  and  fearless.  Said  he  : 

"  The  only  ground  on  which  the  learned  counsel  attempt  to 
establish  the  authority  of  the  military  commission  to  try  the  pe 
titioners  is  that  of  the  necessity  of  the  case.  1  answer,  there 
was  no  such  necessity.  Neither  the  Constitution  nor  Congress 
recognized  it.  I  point  to  the  Constitution  as  an  arsenal,  stored 
with  ample  powers  to  meet  every  emergency  of  national  life. 
No  higher  test  of  its  completeness  can  be  imagined  than  has 
been  afforded  by  the  great  rebellion,  which  dissolved  the  munic 
ipal  governments  of  eleven  States,  and  consolidated  them  into 


178  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

a  gigantic  traitorous  government  de  facto,  inspired  with  the 
desperate  purpose  of  destroying  the  Government  of  the  United 
States. 

"  From  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion  to  its  close,  Congress, 
by  its  legislation,  kept  pace  with  the  necessities  of  the  nation. 
In  sixteen  carefully  considered  laws  the  National  Legislature 
undertook  to  provide  for  every  contingency,  and  arm  the  Exec 
utive  at  every  point  with  the  solemn  sanction  of  law.  Observe 
how  perfectly  the  case  of  the  petitioners  was  covered  by  the  pro 
visions  of  law." 

Then  he  went  on  to  prove  the  baselessness  of  some  of  the 
charges  under  which  MiHigan  was  convicted,  and  swept  them 
away  with  a  logic  and  with  facts  that  were  irresistible. 

His  conclusion  showed  that  the  instincts  of  an  American  citi 
zen,  who  valued  his  citizenship  intensely  because  the  institutions 
of  his  country  had  enabled  him  to  make  his  way  upward  with 
such  brilliant  rapidity,  were  all-powerful  and  commanding  over 
his  conduct  and  his  enthusiasms.  Said  he  : 

u  Your  decision  will  mark  an  era  in  American  history.  The 
just  and  final  settlement  of  this  great  question  will  take  a  high 
place  among  the  great  achievements  which  have  immortalized 
this  decade.  It  will  establish  forever  this  truth,  of  inestimable 
value  to  us  and  to  mankind,  that  a  republic  can  wield  the  vast 
enginery  of  war  without  breaking  down  the  safeguards  of  lib 
erty  ;  can  suppress  insurrection  and  put  down  rebellion,  how 
ever  formidable,  without  destroying  the  bulwarks  of  law  ;  can, 
by  the  might  of  its  armed  millions,  preserve  and  defend  both 
nationality  and  liberty.  Victories  on  the  field  were  of  priceless 
value,  for  they  plucked  the  life  of  the  Republic  out  of  the  hands 
of  its  enemies  ;  but 

*  Peace  hath  her  victories 
No  less  renowned  than  war  ;' 

and  if  the  protection  of  law  shall,  by  your  decision,  be  extended 
over  every  acre  of  our  peaceful  territory,  you  will  have  rendered 
the  great  decision  of  the  century. 

-'  When  Pericles  had  made  Greece  immortal  in  arts  and  arm* 
in  liberty  and  law,  he  invoked  the  genius  of  Phidias  to  devise  ;. 
monument  which  should  symbolize  the  beauty  and  glory  of 
Athens.     That  artist  selected  for  his  theme  the  tutelar  divinity 


THE  LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GAKFIEL1).  179 

of  Athens,  the  Jove-born  goddess,  protectress  of  arts  and  arms, 
of  industry  and  law,  who  typified  the  Greek  conception  of  com 
posed,  majestic,  unrelenting  force.  He  erected  on  the  height 
of  the  Acropolis  a  colossal  statue  of  Minerva,  armed  with  spear 
and  helmet,  which  towered  in  awful  majesty  above  the  sur 
rounding  temples  of  the  gods.  Sailors  on  far-off  ships  beheld 
the  crest  and  spear  of  the  goddess  and  bowed  with  reverent 
awe.  To  every  Greek  she  was  the  symbol  of  power  and  glory. 
But  the  Acropolis,  with  its  temples  and  statues,  is  now  a  heap 
of  ruins.  The  visible  gods  have  vanished  in  the  clearer  light  of 
modern  civilization.  We  cannot  restore  the  decayed  emblems 
of  ancient  Greece,  but  it  is  in  your  power,  O  judges,  to  erect  in 
this  citadel  of  our  liberties  a  monument  more  lasting  than 
brass  ;  invisible  indeed  to  the  eye  of  flesh,  but  visible  to  the  eye 
of  the  spirit  as  the  awful  form  and  figure  of  Justice,  crowning 
and  adorning  the  Republic  ;  rising  above  the  storms  of  political 
strife,  above  the  din  of  battle,  above  the  earthquake  shock  of 
rebellion  ;  seen  from  afar  and  hailed  as  protector  by  the  op 
pressed  of  all  nations,  dispensing  equal  blessings,  and  covering 
with  the  protecting  shield  of  law  the  weakest,  the  humblest,  the 
meanest,  and,  until  declared  by  solemn  law  unworthy  of  pro 
tection,  the  guiltiest  of  its  citizens." 

Remember  that  this  argument  was  not  only  made  by  a  Repub 
lican  politician  representing  one  of  the  most  radical  of  Republi 
can  districts,  but  that  it  was  made  on  the  6th  of  March,  1866,  the 
year  before  a  distinguished  soldier,  whose  sole  duty  was  to  en 
force  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  undertook  to  further  the 
schemes  of  the  strong  men  who  had  determined  to  make  him  a 
Presidential  candidate  of  the  party  that  had  opposed  him  in  the 
only  field  where  he  had  ever  been  either  prominent  or  active,  by 
issuing  a  series  of  proclamations  which  encouraged  the  revival 
of  a  rebellious  and  disorderly  spirit  in  Texas  and  Louisiana,  and 
which  were  not  only  insubordinate  to  the  legislative  branch  of 
the  Government,  but  to  his  two  distinguished  military  superiors. 
Hancock,  the  favorite  and  protege  of  Andrew  Johnson,  under 
took  the  task  of  reversing  the  policy  of  Sheridan  and  of  Grant, 
after  the  greatest  of  all  Virginians  since  Washington,  George  H. 
Thomas,  had  absolutely  and  indignantly  refused  to  do  Johnson's 
work  and  to  undo  the  work  of  the  war.  It  was  not  any  part  of  the 


180          THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAEFIELD. 

duty  of  a  soldier  in  Hancock's  place  to  indulge  in  the  "  glittering 
generalities"  which  were  a  misplaced  and  shallow  adaptation  of 
the  sound  and  lawyer-like  doctrines  of  civil  liberty  expounded  by 
the  citizen-soldier  and  the  defender  of  the  rights  of  citizenship, 
James  A.  Garfield,  who  had  much  to  fear  politically  from  his 
course,  while  Hancock  had  everything  to  expect  from  adding  the 
incongruous  functions  of  a  demagogue  to  the  proper  duties  of  a 
subordinate  commander.  The  people  of  the  United  States  can 
judge  whether  Garfield's  defense  of  civil  liberty  or  Hancock's, 
under  all  the  circumstances  and  conditions,  was  the  more  credit 
able  and  patriotic. 

The  preparation  for  the  argument  in  the  Milligan  case  was 
necessarily  limited  in  time,  but  the  fundamental  principles  which 
underlaid  Garfield's  effort  were  all  thoroughly  familiar  to  him, 
and  he  needed  only  to  work  up  the,  cases  and  make  the  appli 
cation.  Realizing  fully  the  importance  of  the  case,  he  plunged 
with  all  his  vigor  into  the  work  of  preparation,  accomplishing, 
through  the  help  of  his  unusually  vigorous  constitution  and 
power  of  rapid  work,  an  immense  amount  of  actual  achievement. 
In  making  out  his  argument  he  worked  for  two  days  and  two 
nights,  with  the  exception  of  four  or  five  hours  of  sleep,  and 
concentrated  in  that  time  what  most  lawyers  would  consider 
a  fortnight's  labor. 

The  day  before  the  trial  was  to  come  off  the  counsel  were  as 
sembled  for  consultation  to  determine  upon  the  policy  to  be 
pursued,  when  Judge  Black  called  upon  Garfield,  as  the  junior 
counsel,  to  give  his  views  first.  The  diffidence  of  Garfield  in 
responding  to  this  request  was  very  deep  and  unfeigned,  in 
presence  of  some  of  the  very  ablest  and  most  distinguished  law 
yers  in  the  country,  to  whom  he  was  to  show  his  method  of  try 
ing  the  case  ;  but  he  had  done  his  best,  and  there  was  nothing 
for  him  to  do  except  to  state  his  points  and  the  line  of  his  argu 
ment,  which  having  done,  the  senior  counsel  relieved  him  of  all 
apprehension  and  anxiety  by  unanimously  telling  him,  "  Don't 
you  change  a  line  or  a  word  of  that." 

The  argument  which  passed  so  successfully  the  ordeal  of  such 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  18X 

severe  critics  was  equally  effectual  in  court,  whose  decision  wa? 
unanimously  in  favor  of  Garfield's  clients.  It  was  a  great  tri 
umph,  one  richly  deserved  by  Garfield  for  his  courage  in  assum 
ing  the  risks  of  unpopularity  with  his  own  party,  and  not  other 
wise  compensated  for  than  in  the  consciousness  of  having  de 
fended  what  he  believed  to  be  the  true  principles  of  our  Govern 
ment.  There  was  certainly  little  outside  encouragement  for  the 
work  which  he  did  in  this  case.  The  defendants  were  poor 
and  in  prison.  Garfield  paid  for  printing  his  own  brief.  He 
had  never  seen  his  clients,  never  had  any  relations  with  them, 
nor  ever  received  a  cent  in  any  way  for  his  service.  But  his 
argument  and  his  success  won  for  him  immediately  a  high  stand 
ing  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  opened  to 
him  a  practice  before  that  and  other  high  tribunals  which  has 
really  afforded  to  him  all  the  profit  which  is  represented  in  his 
actual  present  property,  as  his  compensation  in  the  army  and  in 
Congress  has  barely  paid  the  economic  expenses  of  his  living. 

One  of  the  pleasantest  circumstances  connected  with  his 
argument  of  the  Milligan  case  was  its  effect  in  deepening  the  ex 
isting  friendship  between  himself  and  his  mortal  enemy  in  poli 
tics,  Judge  Black,  and  in  increasing  Judge  Black's  already 
strong  admiration  for  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  manly  quali 
ties  of  his  young  friend.  This  friendship  has  continued  under 
all  circumstances  with  increasing  strength  and  fervor  to  this 
day,  and  has  given  rise  to  many  other  acts  of  friendship  OD 
the  part  of  Judge  Black  than  his  now  celebrated  letter  defend 
ing  Garfield  from  the  charges  in  connection  with  the  Credit  Mo- 
bilier  and  other  matters.  To  those  who  know  Judge  Black  and 
his  unbending,  uncompromising  integrity  of  character,  it  is  un 
necessary  to  say  that  no  considerations  would  cause  him  to  write, 
in  behalf  even  of  a  most  beloved  brother,  such  a  letter  as  that 
which  has  been  recently  republished  in  regard  to  General  Gar- 
field  and  the  latter's  connection  with  the  Credit  Mobilier. 

Among  the  cases  in  which  Garfield  has  been  retained  as  coun 
sel,  one  of  the  most  notable  was  that  known  as  the  great  Alex 
ander  Campbell  will  case,  in  which  he  was  associated  with 


182  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES    A.  GAltFIELD. 

Judge  Black  in  defence  of  the  will.  His  senior  counsel  was 
obliged  to  leave  the  conduct  of  the  argument  to  Garfield  en 
tirely.  Alexander  Campbell,  the  founder  of  the  sect  known  as 
the  Campbellites,  left  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  dollars, 
and  his  will  was  contested  on  the  ground  that  he  was  mentally 
infirm  from  old  age  when  his  will  was  made.  The  trial  lasted 
for  ten  days,  and  presented  many  difficult  points,  but  Garfield 
was  successful,  and  maintained  the  soundness  of  the  testator's 
mind  and  the  validity  of  the  will.  In  this  case  he  was  well 
paid. 

In  another  case  he  was  the  assistant  junior  counsel  of  that 
great  jurist  Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  in  the  last  case  which  the 
latter  ever  argued  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  of  which  tribunal  he  had  been  for  many  years  the  most 
distinguished  ornament.  The  question  involved  in  this  case 
was  one  as  to  the  effect  of  war  on  a  life-insurance  policy — 
whether  a  Southern  policy-holder  by  entering  the  Confederate 
military  service  forfeited  his  policy.  Judge  Curtis  and  General 
Garfield  maintained  that -he  did.  It  was  an  entirely  new  ques 
tion  in  the  Supreme  Court,  and  its  difficulty  may  be  judged  of 
from  the  fact  that  as  one  of  the  nine  judges  happened  to  be  sick 
the  other  eight  were  equally  divided,  and  it  was  impossible  then 
to  arrive  at  a  final  decision. 

But  a  year  later,  after  Judge  Curtis'  death,  another  case 
came  up  involving  the  same  discussion,  and  Garfield  was  chosen 
by  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Company  to  manage  it,  and 
won  it,  the  Court  deciding  that  war  vitiates  and  renders  void  a 
policy  of  life  insurance. 

The  mention  of  these  cases  shows  that  General  Garfield  main 
tained  the  extraordinary  position  in  the  profession  which  he 
assumed  at  the  very  outset.  They  are  mentioned  only  to  indi 
cate  the  nature  of  the  practice  into  which  Garfield  entered,  and 
which  has  been  since  continued  in  a  large  number  and  variety 
of  important  cases,  some  of  which  will  be  referred  to  elsewhere. 
The  records  of  the  American  Bar  will  fail  to  show  any  parallel 
instance  to  that  of  his  splendid  beginning  and  of  his  maintenance 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  183 

of  the  elevated  position  to  which  he  at  first  attained — a  position 
reached  by  few,  even  among  those  whose  whole  lives  have  been 
given  to  the  professional  work,  until  after  they  have  passed  their 
meridian.  Of  course  he  has  been  able  to  give  but  a  small  propor 
tion  of  his  time  to  the  practice  of  the  law,  even  for  large  fees. 
He  has  never  sought  cases,  but  has  been  obliged  to  decline  a  great 
deal  of  practice  which  has  come  to  him  of  its  own  accord.  Still, 
his  income  has  been  materially  benefited  by  his  fees  as  a  lawyer, 
and  altogether  they  would  amount,  probably,  to  a  considerable 
sum.  The  amount  he  has  received  has  varied  very  much  in 
different  years.  In  some  years  his  receipts  from  the  profession 
would  not  be  over  a  thousand  dollars,  while  in  other  years  they 
were  six  or  seven  times  that  amount. 


(Garfidd  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  February  2,  1868. 

Yon  were  surprised  that  I  introduced  the  Hancock  Bill ;  so  was  I ;  but  the 
orders  and  proclamations  which  he  had  been  issuing  were  of  so  insubordinate 
a  character  as  to  endanger  the  whole  work  of  reconstruction  in  Louisiana.  It 
was  a  part  of  the  plan  by  which  the  President  seemed  determined  to  make  it 
appear  that  the  reaction  was  going  to  overthrow  not  only  our  party,  but  all  its 
work.  Even  if  we  should  see  that  the  Government  plan  was  not  the  best,  it  was 
manifest  that  a  change  now  would  be  every  way  disastrous.  Those  who  clamor 
against  the  plan  of  Congress  most  are  not  able  to  say  what  better  thing  can  now 
be  done— indeed,  they  propose  no  plan  Their  only  purpose  is  to  get  into 
power.  Seeing  this  so  clearly,  it  became  manifest  that  we  must  rebuke  all 
attempts  at  insubordinate  reaction.  We  must  show  that  our  refusal  to  impeach 
the  President  did  not  arise  either  from  want  of  courage,  nor  from  any  purpose 
to  abandon  our  work  of  reconstruction  on  the  basis  of  universal  freedom.  With 
these  views  1  introduced  the  Hancock  Bill,  not  so  much  for  the  purpose  of  pass 
ing  it  as  to  show  him  how  completely  he  was  in  our  hands,  and  that  he  could  not 
make  political  merchandise  of  his  commission,  and  read  lectures  to  the  National 
Legislature  when  he  ought  to  be  executing  its  law.  1  could  readily  have  carried 
the  bill  through,  but  preferred  to  let  it  hang  suspended.  I  think  it  has  had  the 
desired  effect,  for  the  General  has  kept  his  place  ever  since.  So  long  as  he  con 
tinues  to  do  so,  I  shall  let  him  alone. 

I  sent  you  a  copy  of  my  remarks  on  the  Reconstruction  Bill,  which  will  show 
you  more  at  length  my  reasons.  I  have  been  spending  all  my  leisure  during  the 
past  two  weeks  in  studying  the  currency  question— in  going  over  again  the 
ground— and  in  a  week  or  two  shall  make  a  speech  on  which  I  expect  to  stand  or 
fall,  probably  the  latter,  for  1  see  the  tide  of  wild  and  insane  clamor  for  paper 
money  rising  higher  and  higher. 


184  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAEFIELD. 


(.Garfleld  to  B.  A,  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  March  8,  1868. 

When  your  last  letter  came,  I  was  in  the  midst  of  my  preparation  for  the 
Campbell  will  case.  That  case  kept  me  away  from  the  city  thirteen  days.  .  .  . 

You  may  be  interested  to  know  that  the  chief  burden  of  the  will  case  fell 
upon  me.  The  trial  occupied  ten  days,  aud  Judge  Black  left  me  at  the  end  of 
the  second  day.  Young  Richardson,  of  Wheeling,  was  my  only  assistant,  and 
he  was  sick  part  of  the  time.  There  were  sixty- eight  witnesses,  and  the  lawyers 
on  the  other  side  spoke  over  eight  hours.  I  had  the  closing  speech,  and  re 
viewed  the  testimony  and  opposing  speeches.  I  spoke  six  hours  and  a  half. 
The  will  and  codicil  were  sustained.  1  suppose  it  may  not  be  immodest  for  me 
to  say  to  you  that  I  think  I  have  never  done  a  more  creditable  piece  of  intellec 
tual  work  than  on  that  trial.  .  .  . 

The  State  Convention  at  Columbus  has  committed  itself  to  some  financial 
doctrines  that,  if  I  understand  them,  1  cannot  and  will  not  endorse.  If  my  con 
stituents  approve  them,  they  cannot  approve  me.  Before  many  weeks  my  im 
mediate  political  future  will  be  decided.  I  care  less  about  the  result  than  i  have 
ever  cared  before. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  April  30,  1874. 

There  is  much  in  life  to  make  one  sad  and  disheartened  ;  but  whether  we 
maintain  a  cheerful  spirit  or  not,  depends  largely  on  the  way  in  which  we  view 
the  events  and  outcomes  of  life.  I  think  the  main  point  of  safety  is  to  look 
upon  life  with  a  view  of  doing  as  much  good  to  others  as  possible,  and,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  strip  ourselves  of  what  the  French  call  egoism. 

The  worst  days  of  darkness  through  which  I  have  ever  passed  have  been 
greatly  alleviated  by  throwing  myself  with  all  my  energy  into  some  work  relat 
ing  to  others.  Your  life  is  to  much  devoted  in  this  direction  that  I  think  you 
will  lind  in  it  the  greatest  safety  from  the  danger  of  gloom. 

**#**##*** 

Those  who  criticise  the  paving  business,  do  so  without  recalling  that  the  fee 
was  a  contingent  one  in  which  the  labor  went  for  nothing  if  the  result  was  not  a 
success.  It  is  everywhere  understood  that  the  fee  is  larger  in  consequence  of  the 
risk  the  lawyer  takes  of  getting  nothing,  and,  when  it  is  considered  that  the 
work  the  partiec  were  to  do  was  to  amount  to  $700,000,  the  contingent  fee  of 
Parsons  will  not  be  considered  an  extravagant  one.  Judge  Black  charged  the 
Phillips  Bros.  $10,000  for  the  work  we  did  for  them  in  Philadelphia,  and  he  had 
two  thirds  of  the  fee  and  I  one  third.  This  was  on  account  of  the  large  sum 
involved,  namely,  $400,000.  Nobody  would  criticise  that  as  an  extravagant  fee 
under  the  circumstances  ;  and  yet,  the  amount  involved  was  little  more  than  one 
half  of  that  involved  in  the  Parson's  fee.  If  I  had  had  any  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  parties  were  employing  anybody  else,  1  would  not  have  helped  Parsons. 
They  gave  Parsons  no  intimation  that  they  were  employing  any  body  besides  him. 

(Garjield  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  7,  1876. 

I  hardly  know  what  to  say  of  the  last  year.  For  many  reasons  it  has  been 
very  unlike  its  predecessors.  To  me  it  has  been  full  of  work,  of  sickness  and 


THE    LIFE    OF    GEX.   JAMES   A.   GAliFIELD.  185 

changes.  It  has  brought  to  me  the  wonders  of  the  PaciQc  coast.  It  has  brought 
to  me  some  good  books  and  large  thoughts.  It  has  brought  a  revolution  in 
political  parties.  It  has  brought  me  for  the  first  time  into  a  legislative  minority. 
It  has  brought  me  to  confront  more  seriously  than  ever  the  proposition  to  retire 
from  public  life,  and  enter  upon  work  for  myself.  More  than  any  other  year  of 
my  life,  it  has  brought  to  me  a  conviction  that  I  have  possibly  so  far  Binned 
against  my  health  by  overwork  that  I  shall  never  again  have  the  capacity  for 
work  formerly  enjoyed.  It  has  brought  the  first  death  into  the  small  and  select 
circle  of  my  ilirani  friends  in  depriving  us  of  Almeda.  It  is  not  a  little  surpris 
ing  that  so  few  deaths  have  occurred  in  our  circle  for  twenty-two  years  ,  but 
the  shaft  will  fall  thicker  and  faster  hereafter. 

1  ought  to  have  added,  the  last  few  months  have  awakened  in  me  an  in 
creased  interest  in  the  law,  and  1  think  the  year  has  witnessed  considerable  in 
crease  in  my  power  as  a  lawyer.  I  have  followed  this  [rule:  whenever  I  have 
had  a  case,  I  have  undertaken  to  work  out  thoroughly  the  principles  involved  in 
it ;  not  for  the  case  alone,  but  for  the  sake  of  comprehending  thoroughly  that 
branch  of  the  Jaw.  And  my  cases  have  fortunately  covered  a  wide  range. 

1  eend  you  a  couple  of  briefs  which  I  have  written  within  the  last  ten  days, 
aud  which  will,  in  part,  illustrate  my  meaning. 


(Garfield  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.') 

ALLIANCE,  OHIO,  June  13,  1877. 

You  know  that  my  life  has  abounded  in  crises  aud  difficult  situations.  This 
trip  has  been,  perhaps,  not  a  crisis,  but  certainly  has  placed  me  in  a  situation  of 
extreme  difficulty.  Two  or  three  months  ago,  W.  B.  Duncan,  a  prominent  busi 
ness  man  in  New  York,  retained  me  as  his  lawyer  in  a  suit  to  be  heard  in  the 
United  States  Court  in  Mobile,  and  sent  me  the  papers  in  the  case.  I  studied 
them,  and  found  that  they  involved  an  imporlantand  somewhat  difficultquesHon 
of  law,  and  I  made  myself  sufficiently  familiar  with  it,  so  that  when  Duncan  tele" 
graphed  me  to  be  in  Mobile  on  the  first  Monday  in  June,  1  went  with  a  pretiy 
comfortable  sense  of  my  readiness  to  meet  anybody  who  should  be  employed  on 
the  other  side.  But  when  I  reached  Mobile  I  found  there  were  two  other  suits 
connected  with  this,  and  involving  the  ownership,  sale,  and  complicated  rights  of 
several  parties  to  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroad. 

After  two  days'  skirmishing,  the  Court  ordered  the  three  suits  to  be  consoli 
dated.  The  question  I  had  prepared  myself  on  passed  wholly  out  of  sight,  and 
the  whole  entanglement  of  an  insolvent  railroad,  twenty-five  years  old, and  lying 
across  four  States,  and  costing  $20,000,000,  came  upon  us  at  once.  There  were 
seven  lawyers  in  the  case  besides  me.  On  one  side  were  John  A.  Campbell,  of 
!scw  Orleans,  late  member  of  the  Supreme  Bench  of  the  United  States,  a  leading 
>'ew  York  and  a  Mobile  lawyer.  Against  ns  were  Judge  Hoadley,of  Cincinnati' 
and  several  Southern  men.  1  was  assigned  the  duty  of  summing  up  the  case  for 
our  side,  and  answering  the  final  argument  of  the  opposition.  I  have  never  felt 
myself  in  such  danger  of  failure  before,  all  had  so  much  better  knowledge  of  the 
facts  than  I,  and  all  had  more  experience  with  that  class  of  litigation  ;  but  I  am 
s-ery  sure  no  one  of  them  did  so  much  hard  work,  in  the  five  nights  and  six  dn.ys 


18G  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 


of  the  trial,  as  I  did.  I  ain  glad  to  toll  you  that  I  have  received  a  dispatch  from 
Mobile  that  the  Court  adopted  my  view  of  the  case,  and  gave  us  a  verdict  on  all 
poiuta 

As  you  may  imagine,  I  am  good  deal  used  up. 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  November  2, 1878. 

Last  evening  I  called  on  Judge  Black  at  the  Ebbett  House  and  found  him 
with  a  Bible  in  his  hand.  He  said  :  ''  I  don't  know  any  one  who  has  properly 
appreciated  the  parables  of  Jesus.  I  don't  believe  that  the  man  ever  lived  who 
could  have  written  any  one  of  them,  even  the  least  of  them.  They  are  unlike 
anything  in  literature  or  philosophy  in  their  spirit,  purpose,  and  character.  If 
they  were  all  that  Jesus  had  lelt  us,  they  would  be  conclusive  proofs  of  hia 
divinity."  What  do  you  ihiuk  of  this  ?  The  Judge  then  went  on  to  say  that  be 
had  that  morning  asked  a  lady  friend  to  lend  him  eome  books  for  Sunday  read 
ing,  and,  among  others,  she  htd  sent  him  a  volume  entitled  ''Alone  with  Jesus.'1 
"  And,"  said  he,  "the  title  repelled  me  for  two  reasons:  first,  it  is  a  piece  of 
spontaneous  egoism  for  any  man  to  assume  that  he  is  of  so  much  consequence 
in  the  universe  that  Christ  would  shut  out  all  the  rest  of  the  world  and  attend  to 
him  ;  and,  second,  I  knew  a  bank  cashier  who  stole  everything  he  could  lay  his 
hands  on,  and  then  ran  away  in  the  night.  He  lelt  behind  him  a  diary  full  of  the 
most  pious  ejaculations,  and  the  last  entry  he  made  in  it  was  this:  'Spent  an 
hour  of  sweet  communion  alone  with  Jesus.'  This  remembrance  spoiled  the 
book  for  me,  and  so  I  have  not  read  it." 

I  spent  several  hours  with  him,  and  found  him  more  than  usually  brilliant. 
He  said  he  was  inclined  to  believe  that  a  man  rarely,  after  he  was  forty  yearsold. 
fell  in  love  with  a  new  poet.  For  his  own  part  no  one  later  than  Byron  had  taken 
much  hold  on  him.  Cokridge,  Soulhey,and  Wordsworth  he  had  read  l>ut  little, 
probably  because  Byron  had  so  savagely  denounced  them  as  the  lakers.  He  has 
no  admiration  for  Ti  nnyson,  and  says  he  never  had  the  patience  to  wade  through 
"  In  Memoriam."  He  was  greatly  pleased  with  my  plan  of  going  into  the  law, 
and  proposed  to  form  a  sort  of  special  partnership  in  the  cases  that  he  and  \ 
might  have  lu  the  Supreme  Court  here.  This  may  be  of  much  service  to  me. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

EDUCATION. 

IN  the  addresses  which  at  various  times  he  has  delivered  on 
the  subject  of  education,  he  has  disclosed  the  methods  and 
workings  of  his  own  mind,  with  an  unconsciousness  of  that  fact 
which  is  perfectly  characteristic.  For  instance,  in  an  address 
delivered  before  the  Literary  Societies  of  the  Eclectic  Institute 
at  Hiram  on  the  14th  of  June,  1867,  he  covered  the  whole 
ground  of  the  disputed  educational  questions  of  the  day,  and* 
brought  out  very  strongly  many  of  the  theories  of  education 
which  he  had  evolved  from  his  own  experience  and  reading. 
Take,  for  instance,  his  classification  of  the  kinds  of  knowledge 
that  should  be  the  objects  of  a  liberal  education.  This  con 
forms  largely  with  the  classification  of  Herbert  Spencer  ;  but  it 
is  broader  and  deeper  by  far  than  Herbert  Spencer's,  for  in 
giving  his  final  definition,  which  is  made  comprehensive  amd 
sweeping,  he  says  that  "  the  student  should  study  himself,  his 
relations  to  society,  to  nature,  and  to  art,  and  above  all,  in  all, 
and  through  all  these,  he  should  study  the  relations  of  himself, 
society,  nature,  and  art  to  God,  the  Author  of  them  all." 

Having  started  in  his  education  with  a  passionate  love  of  the 
classics,  he  had  finally  reached  the  point  of  enlargement  by  a 
study  of  the  physical  sciences,  where  he  began  to  believe  that 
the  share  of  time  alloted  to  classical  studies  by  our  colleges  was 
too  great  in  proportion,  and  not  arranged  in  the  right  order  of 
development.  To  illustrate  his  views  by  his  own  language, 
what  he  suggested  as  to  the  order  of  study  was  u  that  the  stu 
dent  shall  first  study  what  he  needs  most  to  know  ;  that  the 
order  of  his  needs  shall  be  the  order  of  his  work."  u  Now," 
said  he,  "it  will  not  be  denied  that  from  the  day  that  the 
child's  foot  first  presses  the  green  turf  till  the  day  when,  an  old 


188  THE    LIFE    OF    GEX.   JAMES    A.   GARFIELD. 

man,  he  is  ready  to  be  laid  under  it,  there  is  not  an  hour  in 
which  he  does  not  need  to  know  a  thousand  things  in  relation 
to  his  body,  '  what  he  shall  eat,  what  he  shall  drink,  and  where 
withal  he  shall  be  clothed.'  If  parents  were  themselves  suffi 
ciently  educated,  most  of  this  knowledge  might  be  acquired  at 
the  mother's  knee  ;  but,  by  the  strangest  perversion  and  mis 
direction  of  the  educational  forces,  these  most  essential  elements 
of  knowledge  are  more  neglected  than  any  other. ' ' 

Further  on  he  said:  "It  is  to  me  a  perpetual  wonder  that 
any  child's  love  of  knowledge  survives  the  outrages  of  the 
school-house,"  and  added,  "  I,  for  one,  declare  that  no  child  of 
mine  shall  ever  be  compelled  to  study  one  hour,  or  to  learn  even 
the  English  alphabet,  before  he  has  deposited  under  his  skin  at 
least  seven  years  of  muscle  and  bone." 

Alluding  to  the  then  common  college  course  of  study,  he 
said  : 

"  A  finished  education  is  supposed  to  consist  mainly  of 
literary  culture.  The  story  of  the  forges  of  the  Cyclops,  where 
the  thunderbolts  of  Jove  were  fashioned,  is  supposed  to  adorn 
elegant  scholarship  more  gracefully  than  those  sturdy  truths 
which  are  preaching  to  this  generation  in  the  wonders  of  the 
mine,  in  the  fire  of  the  furnace,  in  the  clang  of  the  iron-mills, 
and  the  other  innumerable  industries  which,  more  than  all 
other  human  agencies,  have  made  our  civilization  what  it  is, 
and  are  destined  to  achieve  wonders  yet  undreamed  of.  This 
generation  is  beginning  to  understand  that  education  should 
not  be  forever  divorced  from  industry  ;  that  the  highest  results 
can  be  reached  only  when  science  guides  the  hand  of  labor. 
With  what  eagerness  and  alacrity  is  industry  seizing  every  truth 
of  science  and  putting  it  in  harness  !" 

Reviewing  the  extent  and  variety  of  knowledge,  scientific 
and  practical,  which  the  farmer  needs  in  order  to  reach  the  full 
height  and  scope  of  his  noble  calling,  he  asks,  "  What  has  our 
American  system  of  education  done  for  this  controlling  majority 
of  the  people  ?"  Which  question  he  answers  with  the  single 
fact  that  "  notwithstanding  there  are  in  the  United  States  120,- 
000  common  schools,  and  7,000  academies  and  seminaries  ;  not- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  189 

withstanding  there  are  275  colleges  where  young  men  may  be 
graduated  as  Bachelors  and  Masters  of  the  liberal  arts,  yet  in  all 
these  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  found  so  little  being 
done,  or  likely  to  be  done,  to  educate  men  for  the  work  of 
agriculture,  that  they  have  demanded,  and  at  last  have  secured, 
from  their  political  servants  in  Congress,  an  appropriation  suffi 
cient  to  build  and  maintain,  in  each  State  of  the  Union,  a 
college  for  the  education  of  farmers.  This  great  outlay  would 
have  been  totally  unnecessary  but  for  the  stupid  and  criminal 
neglect  of  college,  academic,  and  common  school  Boards  of 
Education  to  furnish  that  which  the  wants  of  the  people  require. 
The  scholar  and  the  worker  must  join  hands  if  both  would  be 
successful." 

But  it  was  not  the  lack  of'  utility  in  the  common  courses  of 
educational  training  which  most  awakened  Garfield's  indigna 
tion.  He  was  more  aroused  by  the  neglect  to  provide  text 
books  for  instruction  as  to  the  nature  of  our  own  Government, 
and  as  to  the  history  of  its  development  and  progress.  Said  he  : 

"  For  this  defect  I  have  neither  respect  nor  toleration.  It  is 
far  inferior  to  that  of  Persia  three  thousand  years  ago.  The 
uncultivated  tribes  of  Greece,  Rome,  Libya,  and  Germany  sur 
passed  us  in  this  respect.  Grecian  children  were  taught  to 
reverence  and  emulate  the  virtue  of  their  ancestors.  Our  edu 
cational  forces  are  so  wielded  as  to  teach  our  children  to  admire 
most  that  which  is  foreign  and  fabulous  and  dead.  Our 
American  children  must  know  all  the  classic  rivers,  from  the 
Scamander  to  the  yellow  Tiber,  must  tell  you  the  length  of  the 
Appian  Way,  and  of  the  canal  over  which  Horace  and  Virgil 
sailed  on  their  journey  to  Brundusium  ;  but  he  may  be  crowned 
with  baccalaureate  honors  without  having  heard,  since  his  first 
moment  of  Freshman  life,  one  word  concerning  the  122,000 
miles  of  coast  and  river  navigation,  the  6000  miles  of  canal,  and 
the  35,000  miles  of  railroad,  which  indicate  both  the  prosperity 
and  the  possibilities  of  his  own  country." 

Without  undertaking  to  give  the  full  scope  of  this  vigorous 
outline  of  what  he  regarded  as  a  style  of  education  adapted  to 
the  unprecedented  conditions  of  American  youth,  there  is  one 


190  THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

passage  which  is  so  profound  and  lofty  in  its  intelligent  Ameri 
canism,  that  it  must  be  given  without  regard  to  its  length  or 
the  lack  of  space  : 

"  It  is  well  to  know  the  history  of  those  magnificent  nations, 
whose  origin  is  lost  in  fable,  and  whose  epitaphs  were  written 
a  thousand  years  ago — but  if  w^  cannot  know  both,  it  is  far 
better  to  study  the  history  of  our  own  nation,  whose  origin  we 
can  trace  to  the  freest  and  noblest  aspirations  of  the  human 
heart — a  nation  that  was  formed  from  the  hardiest,  purest,  and 
most  enduring  elements  of  European  civilization — a  nation,  that 
by  its  faith  and  courage  has  dared  and  accomplished  more 
for  the  human  race  in  a  single  century  than  Europe  accom 
plished  in  the  first  thousand  years  of  the  Christian  Era.  The 
New  England  township  was  the  type  after  which  our  Federal 
Government  was  modelled  ;  yet  it  would  be  rare  to  find  a  college 
student  who  can  make  a  comprehensive  and  intelligible  state 
ment  of  the  municipal  organization  of  the  township  in  which 
he  was  born,  and  tell  you  by  what  officers  its  legislative,  judi 
cial  and  executive  functions  are  administered.  One  half  of  the 
time  which  is  now  almost  wholly  wasted,  in  district  schools,  on 
English  Grammar,  attempted  at  too  early  an  age,  would  be 
sufficient  to  teach  our  children  to  love  the  Republic,  and  to  be- 
some  its  loyal  and  life-long  supporters.  After  the  bloody  bap 
tism  from  which  the  nation  has  arisen  to  a  higher  and  nobler 
life,  if  this  shameful  defect  in  our  system  of  education  be  not 
speedily  remedied,  we  shall  deserve  the  infinite  contempt  of 
future  generations.  I  insist  that  it  should  be  made  an  indis 
pensable  condition  of  graduation  in  every  American  college, 
that  the  student  must  understand  the  history  of  this  continent 
since  its  discovery  by  Europeans,  the  origin  and  history  of  the 
United  States,  its  constitution  of  government,  the  struggles 
through  which  it  has  passed,  and  the  rights  and  duties  of 
citizens  who  are  to  determine  its  destiny  and  share  its  glory. 

"  Having  thus  gained  the  knowledge  which  is  necessary  to 
life,  health,  industry,  and  citizenship,  the  student  is  prepared 
to  enter  a  wider  and  grander  field  of  thought.  If  he  desires 
that  large  and  liberal  culture  which  will  call  into  activity  all 
his  powers,  and  make  the  most  of  the  material  God  has  given 
him,  he  must  study  deeply  and  earnestly  the  intellectual,  the 
moral,  the  religious  and  the  aesthetic  nature  of  man  ;  his  rela 
tions  to  nature,  to  civilization,  past  and  present  ;  and  above  all, 
his  relations  to  God.  These  should  occupy,  nearly,  if  not  fully, 
half  the  time  of  his  college  course.  In  connection  with  the 


THE  LIFE  OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  191 

philosophy  of  the  mind,  he  should  study  logic,  the  pure  mathe 
matics,  and  the  general  laws  of  thought.  In  connection  with 
moral  philosophy,  he  should  study  political  and  social  ethics,  a 
science  so  little  known  either  in  colleges  or  Congresses. 
Prominent  among  all  the  rest,  should  be  his  study  of  the  won 
derful  history  of  the  human  race,  in  its  slow  and  toilsome  march 
across  the  centuries — now  buried  in  ignorance,  superstition 
and  crime  ;  now  rising  to  the  sublimity  of  heroism  and  catch 
ing  a  glimpse  of  a  better  destiny  ;  now  turning  remorselessly 
away  from,  and  leaving  to  perish,  empires  and  civilizations  in 
which  it  had  invested  its  faith  and  courage  and  boundless 
energy  for  a  thousand  years,  and  plunging  into  the  forests  of 
Germany,  Gaul,  and  Britain,  to  build  for  itself  new  empires 
better  fitted  for  its  new  aspirations  ;  and  at  last,  crossing  three 
thousand  miles  of  unknown  sea,  and  building  in  the  wilderness 
of  a  new  hemisphere  its  latest  and  proudest  monuments." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

CIVIL   SEKVICE   REFORM. 

IT  has  generally  happened  to  political  parties  to  have  at  least 
one  question  that  was  peculiarly  troublesome.  The  slavery 
question  was  the  death  of  the  old  Whig  party,  whose  composi 
tion  was  such  that  it  was  impossible  that  it  should  stand  any 
thing  like  a  chance  of  success  in  a  competition  with  the  Demo 
cratic  party  for  the  favor  and  support  of  the  South.  Time  has 
brought  its  revenges,  however,  and  since  the  war  the  various 
phases  of  the  slavery  question  and  of  the  constitutional  doctrines 
which  were  invented  to  buttress  slavery  against  external 
assaults,  have  been,  at  various  times,  very  ugly  things  for  the 
Democratic  party  to  deal  with,  and  the  currency  question  has 
been  still  fuller  of  dangers  and  disasters.  But  the  question 
of  Civil  Service  Reform  has  been  the  peculiar  difficulty  of  the 
Republican  Party.  It  is  a  party  which,  as  a  matter  of  recog 
nized  fact,  contains  within  itself  a  large  proportion  of  the  best 
educated,  the  most  intelligent,  and  politically  the  most  consci 
entious  and  independent  people  in  the  country.  While,  in  some 
of  the  States  of  the  Union,  twenty  years  of  continuous  power 
have  given  to  what  are  known  as  the  "  party  machines"  a  per 
fection  of  organization,  a  thoroughness  of  drill  and  discipline, 
and  a  steadiness  of  grip,  unequalled,  perhaps,  in  the  political 
history  of  the  country,  there  is  no  State  in  which  the  whole 
fabric  of  organization  is  not  liable  to  be  swept  away  at  any  time 
by  an  uprising  of  the  disinterested  intellectual  and  moral  forces 
within  the  party,  on  sufficient  provocation  and  with  proper 
direction.  And  yet,  although  the  party  convention  in  Cincin 
nati  four  years  ago  adopted  an  unequivocal  Civil  Service  Reform 
platform,  which  was  received  with  approbation  by  pretty  much 
all  Republicans  who  were  not  either  running  political 


THE  LIFE  OF  GEtf.  JAMES  A.  GAKFIELD.  193 

"  machines"  or  expecting  favors  and  offices  there fpom,  it  has 
required  three  years  of  excellent,  pure,  successful,  and,  in  some 
respects,  magnificent  administration,  for  President  Hayes  to 
secure  from  his  party  the  unquestionably  general  honor,  respect, 
and  support  -which  he  now  enjoys.  But  it  would  be  very  unsafe 
to  suppose  that,  with  all  the  human  nature  there  is  in  any  great 
political  party,  the  Republican  Party  is  anything  like  a  unit  on 
the  subject  of  Civil  Service  Reform.  It  is  one  thing  to  be  will 
ing  to  fight  for  freedom  in  the  Territories,  or  for  emancipation  in 
all  the  old  slave  States  ;  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  fight  for 
purity  of  administration  and  the  abolition  of  patronage  for 
political  purposes,  when  there  are  so  many  good  people  in  the 
country  who,  for  themselves  or  for  their  friends  or  relations,  are 
entertaining  great  expectations  from  the  distribution  of  a  hun 
dred  thousand  Federal  offices.  The  tendency  of  the  party  un 
questionably  is  toward  Civil  Service  Reform  ;  and  while  the 
Chicago  platform,  for  reasons  needless  to  mention  here,  ignored 
this  question  in  the  way  of  any  direct  treatment,  the  convention 
unanimously  nominated  a  man  for  the  Presidency  whose  record 
on  the  subject  of  Civil  Service  Reform  is,  in  itself,  a  platform  ; 
and  that  record,  if  it  is  not  known  of  all  men,  easily  can  be.  I 
am  sure  that  General  Garfielck  will  not  shrink  from  its  minutest 
scrutiny,  or  from  the  implied  pledges  that  are  contained  in  his 
various  public  declarations  on  this  subject.  So  far  as  his  career 
as  a  politician  is  concerned,  from  first  to  last,  he  has  been,  not  so 
much  antagonistic  to,  as  distinct  from,  that  class  of  leaders  whose 
power  has  been  strengthened,  continued,  and  perpetuated  by 
the  creation  and  preservation  of  "  machines"  and  the  judicious 
disposition  of  patronage.  Garfield  has  maintained  his  hold  on 
the  affections  and  confidence  of  the  people  of  his  own  district 
and  of  the  State  of  Ohio  by  virtue  of  what  he  has  been,  and 
said,  and  done.  He  never  managed  a  convention  or  a  caucus  in 
his  own  interest,  or  for  his  own  purposes.  He  never  attempted 
to  do  so.  Even  in  his  contest  for  the  United  States  Senate,  when 
his  opponent  was  a  man  of  such  large  national  reputation  and 
deserved  personal  popularity,  he  not  only  did  not  go  near  the 


194          THE   LIFE  OF   GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

scene  of  the  contest,  he  did  not  have  there  any  "  headquarters  ;'' 
kept  no  "  grocery  ;"  made  no  pledges,  bargains,  or  concessions  ; 
authorized  and  made  no  personal  attacks  on  his  great  competi 
tor,  Judge  Thurman,  and  quietly  and  without  excitement  awaited 
the  result. 

He  has  been  repeatedly  and  continuously  honored  by  his  fellow- 
citizens  with  their  confidence,  not  because  of  what  he  has  done 
directly  to  insure  that  support,  but  by  virtue  of  what  he  has  uni 
formly  said  and  done  in  the  interests  of  his  party  and  of  his  coun 
try.  He  therefore  has,  and  can  have,  no  sympathy  with  those 
who  oppose  Civil  Service  Reform,  because  it  is  inconsistent  with 
the  maintenance  of  despotic  political  "  machines,"  run  for  their 
own  benefit.  But  he  is  also  an  exceedingly  practical  man.  As  a 
member  of  Congress  unusually  familiar  with  the  wants  and  the 
relative  merits  of  his  constituents,  he  has  long  acted  as  their 
friend,  their  mouthpiece,  and  their  mediator,  with  the  appoint 
ing  power.  He  knows  how  utterly  impossible  it  is  for  executive 
officers  in  Washington  to  understand,  unaided  by  Congressional 
advice,  the  relative  merits  of  competing  applicants  for  office,  all 
over  the  vast  extent  of  this  country  ;  and  yet  he  has  a  constitu 
tional  aversion  to  acting  as  an  intermediary  between  office- 
seekers  and  the  Executive.  Even,  the  slightest  glimpse  into  the 
activities  of  a  public  character  which  have  distinguished  him 
ever  since  he  took  his  seat  in  Congress  would  show  any  one 
how  he  must  begrudge  every  moment  of  time  given  to  the  mere 
details  of  providing  constituents  with  offices,  no  matter  how  fit 
they  may  have  been  for  Executive  favor. 

But  it  is  far  better  to  allow  General  Garfield  to  define  his  own 
views  on  a  subject  so  delicate,  difficult,  and  important.  He  has 
done  this  in  a  contribution  to  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  July,  1877, 
which  is,  perhaps,  as  clear  and  comprehensive  a  statement  of 
the  views  of  an  enlightened  and  practical  statesman,  who  has 
been  in  thorough  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  Hayes  Admin 
istration,  while  he  has  opposed  or  criticised  many  of  its  methods, 
as  could  possibly  be  found. 


THE   LIFE   OP   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GAEFIELD.  195 

"  This  brings  me  to  consider  the  present  relations  of  Congress 
to  the  other  great  departments  of  the  Government,  and  to  the 
people.  The  limits  of  this  article  will  permit  no  more  than  a 
glance  at  a  few  principal  heads  of  inquiry. 

"  In  the  main,  the  balance  of  powers  so  admirably  adjusted  and 
distributed  among  the  three  great  departments  of  the  Govern 
ment  have  been  safely  preserved.  It  was  the  purpose  of  our 
fathers  to  lodge  absolute  power  nowhere  ;  to  leave  each  depart 
ment  independent  within  its  own  sphere  ;  yet,  in  every  case, 
responsible  for  the  exercise  of  its  discretion.  But  some  danger 
ous  innovations  have  been  made. 

"  And  first,  the  appointing  power  of  the  President  has  been 
seriously  encroached  upon  by  Congress,  or  rather  by  the  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  Curiously  enough,  this  encroachment  origi 
nated  in  the  act  of  the  Chief  Executive  himself.  The  fierce 
popular  hatred  of  the  Federal  party  which  resulted  in  the  ele 
vation  of  Jefferson  to  the  Presidency  led  that  officer  to  set  the 
first  example  of  removing  men  from  office  on  account  of  politi 
cal  opinions.  For  political  causes  alone  he  removed  a  consid 
erable  number  of  officers  who  had  recently  been  appointed  by 
President  Adams,  and  thus  set  the  pernicious  example.  His  im 
mediate  successors  made  only  a  few  removals  for  political  rea 
sons.  But  Jackson  made  his  political  opponents  who  were  in 
office  feel  the  full  weight  of  his  executive  hand.  From  that 
time  forward  the  civil  offices  of  the  Government  became  the 
prizes  for  which  political  parties  strove  ;  and,  twenty-five  years 
ago,  the  corrupting  doctrine  that  '  to  the  victors  belong  the 
spoils '  was  shamelessly  announced  as  an  article  of  political 
faith  and  practice.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  state  with  adequate 
force  the  noxious  influence  of  this  doctrine.  It  was  bad  enough 
when  the  Federal  officers  numbered  no  more  than  eight  or  ten 
thousand  ;  but  now,  when  the  growth  of  the  country,  and  the 
great  increase  in  the  number  of  public  offices,  occasioned  by  the 
late  war,  have  swelled  the  civil  list  to  more  than  eighty  thousand, 
and  to  the  ordinary  motives  for  political  strife  this  vast  patronage 
is  offered  as  a  reward  to  the  victorious  party,  the  magnitude  of 
the  evil  can  hardly  be  measured.  The  public  mind  has,  by  de 
grees,  drifted  into  an  acceptance  of  this  doctrine  ;  and  thus  an 
election  has  become  a  fierce,  selfish  struggle  between  the  4  ins  ' 
and  the  *  outs,'  the  one  striving  to  keep  and  the  other  to  gain 
the  prize  of  office.  It  is  not  possible  for  any  President  to  select, 
with  any  degree  of  intelligence,  so  vast  an  army  of  office-holders 
without  the  aid  of  men  who  are  acquainted  with  the  people  of 
the  various  sections  of  the  country.  And  thus  it  has  become  the 


196  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAEFIELD. 

habit  of  Presidents  to  make  most  of  their  appointments  on  the 
recommendation  of  members  of  Congress.  During  the  last 
twenty-five  years  it  has  been  understood,  by  the  Congress  and 
the  people,  that  offices  are  to  be  obtained  by  the  aid  of  Senators 
and  Representatives,  who  thus  become  the  dispensers,  some 
times  the  brokers  of  patronage.  The  members  of  State  Legis 
latures  who  choose  a  Senator,  and  the  district  electors  who 
choose  a  Representative,  look  to  the  man  of  their  choice  for  ap 
pointments  to  office.  Thus,  from  the  President  downward, 
through  all  the  grades  of  official  authority,  to  the  electors  them 
selves,  civil  office  becomes  a  vast  corrupting  power,  to  be  used 
in  running  the  machine  of  party  politics. 

44  This  evil  has  been  greatly  aggravated  by  the  passage  of  the 
Tenure  of  Office  Act  of  1867,  whose  object  was  to  restrain  Pres 
ident  Johnson  from  making  removals  for  political  cause.  But 
it  has  virtually  resulted  in  the  usurpation,  by  the  Senate,  of  a 
large  share  of  the  appointing  power.  The  President  can  remove 
no  officer  without  the  consent  of  the  Senate  ;  and  such  consent  is 
not  often  given,  unless  the  appointment  of  the  successor  nomi 
nated  to  fill  the  proposed  vacancy  is  agreeable  to  the  Senator  in 
whose  State  the  appointee  resides.  Thus  it  has  happened  that 
a  policy,  inaugurated  by  an  early  President,  has  resulted  in 
seriously  crippling  the  just  powers  of  the  Executive,  and  has 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Senators  and  Representatives  a  power 
most  corrupting  and  dangerous. 

"  Not  the  least  serious  evil  resulting  from  this  invasion  of  the 
executive  functions  by  members  of  Congress  is  the  fact  that  it 
greatly  impairs  their  own  usefulness  as  legislators.  One  third 
of  the  working  hours  of  Senators  and  Representatives  is  hardly 
sufficient  to  meet  the  demands  made  upon  them  in  reference  to 
appointments  to  office.  The  spirit  of  that  clause  of  the  Consti 
tution  which  shields  them  from  arrest  '  during  their  attendance 
on  the  session  of  their  respective  houses,  and  in  going  to  and 
from  the  same,'  should  also  shield  them  from  being  arrested 
from  their  legislative  work,  morning,  noon,  and  night,  by  office- 
seekers.  To  sum  up  in  a  word  :  the  present  system  invades 
the  independence  of  the  Executive,  and  makes  him  less  responsi 
ble  for  the  character  of  his  appointments  ;  it  impairs  the  effi 
ciency  of  the  legislator  by  diverting  him  from  his  proper  sphere 
of  duty,  and  involving  him  in  the  intrigues  of  aspirants  for 
office  ;  it  degrades  the  civil  service  itself  by  destroying  the  per 
sonal  independence  of  those  who  are  appointed  ;  it  repels  from 
the  service  those  high  and  manly  qualities  which  are  so  neces 
sary  to  a  pure  and  efficient  administration  ;  and,  finally,  it  de- 


THE   LITE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  197 

bauches  the  public  mind  by  holding  up  public  office  as  the  re 
ward  of  mere  party  zeal. 

"  To  reform  this  service  is  one  of  the  highest  and  most  impera 
tive  duties  of  statesmanship.  This  reform  cannot  be  accom 
plished  without  a  complete  divorce  between  Congress  and  the 
Executive  in  the  matter  of  appointments.  It  will  be  a  proud 
day  when  an  administration  Senator  or  Representative,  who  is 
in  good  standing  in  his  party,  can  say  as  Thomas  Hughes  said, 
during  his  recent  visit  to  this  country,  that  though  he  was  on 
the  most  intimate  terms  with  the  members  of  his  own  adminis 
tration,  yet  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  secure  the  removal  of  the 
humblest  clerk  in  the  civil  service  of  his  government. 

"This  is  not  the  occasion  to  discuss  the  recent  enlargement  of 
the  jurisdiction  of  Congress  in  reference  to  the  election  of  a 
President  and  Vice-President  by  the  States.  But  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  electoral  bill  has  spread  a  wide  and  dangerous 
field  for  Congressional  action.  Unless  the  boundaries  of  its 
power  shall  be  restricted  by  a  new  amendment  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  we  have  seen  the  last  of  our  elections  of  President  on  the 
old  plan.  The  power  to  decide  who  has  been  elected  may  be 
so  used  as  to  exceed  the  power  of  electing. 

"  I  have  long  believed  that  the  official  relations  between  the 
Executive  and  Congress  should  be  more  open  and  direct.  They 
are  now  conducted  by  correspondence  with  the  presiding  offi 
cers  of  the  two  Houses,  by  consultation  with  committees,  or  by 
private  interviews  with  individual  members.  This  frequently 
leads  to  misunderstandings,  and  may  lead  to  corrupt  combina 
tions.  It  would  be  far  better  for  both  departments  if  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Cabinet  were  permitted  to  sit  in  Congress  and  par 
ticipate  in  the  debates  on  measures  relating  to  their  several  de 
partments,  but,  of  course,  without  a  vote.  This  would  tend  to 
secure  the  ablest  men  for  the  chief  executive  offices  ;  it  would 
bring  the  policy  of  the  administration  into  the  fullest  publicity 
by  giving  both  parties  ample  opportunity  for  criticism  and  de 
fense." 


[NOTE.— This  and  the  two  succeeding  chapters  are  allowed  to  stand  unrevised. 
They  are  just  as  they  were  written  in  1880,  after  a  visit  at  General  Garfield's 
home  at  Mentor,  where  the  author  had  exceptional  opportunities  for  studying 
the  plans,  hopes,  and  character  of  his  subject.] 


CHAPTER  xvrn. 

BY    WAY    OF   REVIEW. 

THE  reader  will  have  realized  before  reading  this  chapter, 
how  hard  it  is  to  grapple  with  all  the  aspects  of  Garfield's  pub 
lic  career,  to  illustrate  which  adequately  half  a  dozen  volumes 
would  be  needed.  It  will  only  be  possible  to  deal  in  general 
ities,  with  a  few  salient  features  of  Garfield's  public  activities  and 
private  life  since  he  entered  Congress.  His  record  as  a  party 
leader,  to  begin  with,  had  been  exceptional.  At  every  stage  of 
his  rapid,  and  yet  steady,  advance  toward  the  culmination  and 
crowning  of  his  leadership,  by  the  spontaneous  and  unanimous 
action  of  the  assembled  representatives  of  his  party,  at  Chicago, 
he  has  developed,  in  growing  measure,  the  rare  combination  of 
powers  and  qualities  that  made  him  the  most  honored  and  pop 
ular  student  at  Williams,  then  President  at  Hiram  College,  then 
State  Senator,  and  afterward  the  Chief  of  Staff  of  the  Army  of 
the  Cumberland.  The  reasons  for  his  success  have  been  in  him, 
and  not  in  his  circumstances  or  in  any  adroit  scheme  to  capture 
it.  His  courage,  inherited  on  both  sides,  developed  by  his  early 
life,  and  under  fire  and  amid  disaster,  in  the  army,  has  been  of 
that  high  moral  order  that  dares  the  censure  or  criticism  of  as 
sociates  or  constituents,  when  his  clear  intuitions  of  right  and 
justice  have  commanded  his  action,  as  they  always  have.  His 
unreserved,  confidential  letters  to  Hinsdale  and  Rockwell  and 
other  intimate  friends,  which  he  never  dreamed  would  see  the 
light,  show  this  with  the  utmost  clearness.  From  his  first 
entrance  on  public  life  until  the  Chicago  Convention,  these  let 
ters  show  him  to  have  been  almost  continually  acting  on  con 
victions  not  shared  by  some  of  his  best  friends  in  Congress,  and 
unpopular  with  many  of  his  constituents  and  with  politicians. 
When  President  Lincoln,  in  the  terrible  winter  of  1863-4,  wanted 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  199 

Congress  to  pass  an  efficient  draft  law,  and  begged  members  to 
pass  it,  as  the  only  means  by  which  our  armies  could  even  be 
kept  in  the  field,  there  came  an  occasion  when  Garfield  stood 
up,  solitary  and  alone,  and  voted  in  accordance  with  Lincoln's 
entreaties.  When,  in  the  heat  of  the  desperate  conflict  between 
the  majority  in  Congress  and  President  Johnson,  there  was 
exhibited,  on  the  part  of  the  former,  some  disregard  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Constitution,  Garfield,  the  Representative  of  the 
most  radical,  anti -Johnson  district  in  the  country,  called  a  halt. 
When  some  Republican  Congressmen  failed  to  see  that  justice 
and  policy  demanded  that  the  South  should  have  a  fair  chance  to 
show  its  acceptance  of  the  results  of  the  war,  he  was  not  afraid 
to  use  the  language  of  prudence,  moderation,  and  wisdom.  And 
then,  when  the  "  solid  South,"  whose  u  Brigadiers1'  ruled  the 
Democratic  Congressional  caucus,  had  determined  to  "  starve 
the  Government11  unless  the  Executive  should  surrender  his  con 
stitutional  prerogatives,  he  was  the  leader  of  the  fight  that  re 
quired  the  highest  degree  of  moral  courage  ever  demanded  of 
a  party  leader  in  Congress. 

In  all  the  sectional  and  partisan  discussions  which  have 
afforded  chances  for  the  display  of  his  powers  in  Congress,  he 
has  retained  the  esteem,  confidence,  and  personal  good-will  of 
the  best  and  ablest  of  his  antagonists.  Among  his  warmest 
friends  are  to  be  found  some  of  the  most  pronounced  represent 
atives  of  extreme  Southern  and  Democratic  sentiment.  They 
know  the  man,  and  so  transparent,  ingenuous,  and  outspoken  a 
man  is  easily  known.  They  know  that  he  has  no  political  passions 
whatever.  They  know  that  there  is  not  a  legitimate  Southern 
interest  which  would  not  be  certain  of  justice  and  liberality  at 
his  hands  ;  that  sectional  hates  have  no  place  in  his  generous 
heart,  nor  sectional  ideas  in  his  broad  nature.  It  is  impossible 
to  conceive  of  his  enduring  for  a  day  the  misery  of  a  grudge  or 
a  jealousy.  Least  of  all,  is  it  possible  for  him  to  cherish  ill- 
feelings  or  suspicions  toward  party  associates  who  have  sought 
the  same  ends  that  he  has,  by  different  methods.  The  feeling 
of  "comradeship11  with  party  associates  in  public  life  wl:o 


200  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN".  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD. 

are  actuated  by  any  high  sense  of  the  mission  and  duties  of  the 
party,  is  peculiarly  warm  and  strong — no  matter  what  their 
attitude  toward  him  or  his  policy  may  have  been.  He  is  the 
best  friend  of  the  greatest  number  of  men,  and  the  poorest  and 
most  inefficient  enemy, of  any  man  whom  I  know  in  politics.  In 
fact,  the  very  exuberance  of  his  own  activities  and  the  fruition 
thereof,  render  him  largely  unconscious  of  and  apathetic  toward 
inter-party  contentions  and  rivalries. 

It  is  a  characteristic  of  Garfield,  as  it  is  of  every  man  whose 
intellectual  and  moral  growth  has  been  healthful,  spontaneous, 
symmetrical,  and  consistent,  that  whatever  thing  has  once  ab 
sorbed  his  interest  and  his.  energies,  has  so  possessed  his  whole 
nature  that  from  that  time  forward  only  opportunities  and  oc 
casions  have  been  needed  to  develop  the  views  and  the  pur 
poses,  with  larger  knowledge  and  stronger  faith,  that  had  be 
come  part  of  his  existence. 

In  fact,  the  prelude  and  key  to  his  whole  public  career  can 
be  found  in  those  terribly  hard-working  days  when  he  was  alter 
nately  teacher  and  pupil  ;  when  his  mind  was  grasping  out  in 
all  directions  with  an  ambition  as  broad  as  Bacon's,  when  he 
wanted  to  "  possess  all  knowledge"  as  his  "province,"  but 
under  limitations,  amid  difficulties,  and  with  a  poverty  of  facili 
ties  which  the  nature  of  Bacon  never  would  have  surmounted. 
The  athletic  young  teacher,  who  was  the  comrade  of  his  pupils 
and  the  devoted  friend  of  his  most  accomplished  teacher,  found 
the  full  fruition  of  his  functions  in  his  noble  and  heroic  experi 
ence  at  Hiram.  He  was  the  teacher  then  in  all  his  instincts, 
with  all  his  force,  with  all  his  winning  affectionateness  of 
nature,  with  all  his  swift-growing  capacity  to  communicate. 
He  has  been,  ever  since  and  simultaneously,  the  teacher  and  the 
pupil.  He  has  been  able  to  illustrate  every  one  of  the  themes 
which  he  has  been  obliged  to  develop  in  Congress  as  a  teacher  ; 
because  no  application  has  been  too  great,  no  press  of  official 
duties  too  arduous,  to  prevent  him  from  sitting  reverently  at 
the  feet  of  the  wisest  teachers  of  all  times  and  filling  himself 
up  with  the  abundance  from  which  he  has  instructed  others. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  201 

Being  such,  it  was  most  natural  that  one  of  his  early  and  ear 
nest  efforts  in  Congress  was  to  make  a  plea  for  the  establishment 
of  the  National  Bureau  of  Education,  which  owes  its  existence 
to  his  energetic  and  persuasive  advocacy,  and  which  has  done 
more  good,  at  less  cost,  than  any  other  bureau  established  by 
our  own  or  any  other  government. 

His  speech  delivered  on  the  8th  of  June,  1866,  passed  in  view 
the  magnitude  of  the  interests  involved  in  the  establishment  of 
the  proposed  bureau.  In  a  brief  space  it  covered  the  progress 
of  general  education  in  our  own  and  other  countries,  and  the  in 
crease  of  the  facilities  of  knowledge,  and  cited  eloquent  passages 
from  the  great  men  of  our  own  and  other  lands. 

In  behalf  of  extending  educational  privileges,  he  said,  in  con 
clusion  :  "  I  know  that  this  is  not  a  measure  which  is  likely  to 
attract  the  attention  of  those  whose  chief  work  is  to  watch  the 
political  movements  that  affect  the  results  of  nominating  con 
ventions  and  elections.  The  mere  politician  will  see  in  it  noth 
ing  valuable,  for  the  millions  of  people  to  be  benefited  by  it  can 
give  him  no  votes  ;  but  I  appeal  to  those  who  care  more  for  the 
future  safety  and  glory  of  this  nation  than  for  any  mere  tempo 
rary  advantage  to  aid  in  giving  to  education  the  public  recog 
nition  and  active  support  of  the  Federal  Government." 

It  was  natural  that  he  should  keep  up  and  widen  his  culture 
and  his  acquaintance  with,  and  friendship  for,  literary  and  scien 
tific  men,  even  during  the  very  thick  of  thronging  public  duties. 
Mr.  Spofford,  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  will  testify  that  no 
other  member  has  made  such  large  and  constant  use  of  the 
Library  as  Garfield.  He  has  not  been  a  promiscuous  and  desul 
tory  reader,  except  in  periods  of  illness,  convalescence,  or  rest, 
but  has  taken  special  themes  or  fields  of  inquiry  and  study,  and 
followed  them  out  in  all  directions.  At  one  time,  to  illustrate, 
he  collected  everything  he  could  find  in  regard  to  Goethe,  his 
development,  surroundings,  relations  to  German  thought,  and 
influence  on  his  contemporaries  and  successors.  I  have  seen  the 
large  blank  book  which  is  nearly  filled  with  the  rich  gleanings 
of  this  comprehensive  search,  in  his  own  handwriting.  So  he 


202  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

got  from  the  Library  its  rarest  and  most  valuable  treasures  of 
Horatian  literature,  which  he  never  tires  of  exploring.  One  of 
his  letters  to  Colonel  Rockwell  shows  that  even  in  a  rough  and 
hasty  rhythmical  transfer  of  one  of  Horace's  odes  he  was  able 
to  display  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  subtle  beauties  of  the  most 
artistic  of  Latin  poets.  One  of  the  most  valued  treasures  in  his 
library  is  a  beautiful  Paris  edition  of  Horace,  sent  to  him  by  his 
distinguished  and  scholarly  friend,  Secretary  Evarts,  for  whose 
commanding  ability  as  a  jurist,  advocate,  and  statesman  he 
cherishes  an  admiration  that  has  been  deepened  by  the  intimacy 
growing  out  of  like  literary  tastes  and  of  common  high  objects 
of  a  political  character. 

In  all  his  official,  professional,  and  literary  work,  Gen.  Garfield 
pursued  a  system  that  enabled  him  to  accumulate,  on  a  vast 
range  and  variety  of  subjects,  an  amount  of  easily-available  in 
formation  such  as  no  one  else  has  shown  the  possession  of  by  its 
use.  His  house  at  Washington  is  a  workshop,  in  which  the 
tools  are  always  kept  within  immediate  reach.  Although  books 
overrun  his  house  from  top  to  bottom,  his  library  contains  the 
working  material  on  which  he  mainly  depends.  And  the 
amount  of  material  is  enormous.  Large  numbers  of  scrap-books 
that  have  been  accumulating  for  over  twenty  years,  in  number 
and  in  value — made  up  with  an  eye  to  what  either  is  or  may 
become  useful,  which  would  render  the  collection  of  priceless 
value  to  the  library  of  any  first-class  newspaper  establishment — 
are  so  perfectly  arranged  and  indexed  that  their  owner,  with 
his  all-retentive  memory,  can  turn  in  a  moment  to  the  facts 
that  may  be  needed  for  almost  any  conceivable  emergency  in 
debate.  These  are  supplemented  by  diaries  that  preserve  Gar- 
field's  multifarious  political,  scientific,  literary  and  religious  in 
quiries,  studies,  and  readings.  And,  to  make  the  machinery  of 
rapid  work  complete,  he  has  a  large  box  containing  sixty-three 
different  drawers,  each  properly  labelled,  in  which  he  places 
newspaper  cuttings,  documents,  and  slips  of  paper,  and  from 
which  he  can  pull  out  what  he  wants  as  easily  as  an  organist 
can  play  on  the  stops  of  his  instrument.  In  other  words,  the 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.    GAKFIELD.  203 

hardest  and  most  masterful  worker  in  Congress  has  had  the 
largest  and  most  scientifically  arranged  of  workshops. 

Having  been  entirely  contented  with  the  congenial  activities 
and  pleasant  social  relations  and  warm  friendships  of  his  career 
as  member  of  the  House,  he  has  not  exerted  himself  for  official 
promotion.  The  position  of  United  States  Senator  would  have 
been  congenial  to  him,  for  the  reason  that  it  would  have  given 
him  greater  leisure  for  study  and  culture,  and  opportunity  for 
more  preparation  in  the  way  of  speech-making.  But  he  not 
only  never  did  anything  to  secure  it — intriguing  for  it  would 
have  been  impossible  for  him— he  declined  to  accept  the  candi 
dacy  for  it,  when  it  was  within  his  reach,  because  President 
Hayes  and  others  urged  on  him  the  duty  of  remaining  in  the 
House,  where  he  was  most  needed.  When  his  election  to  the 
Senate  did  come,  it  was  the  spontaneous  and  unforced  result  of 
nearly  twenty  years  of  good  and  great  service,  for  his  party  and 
his  country,  of  which  every  detail  was  known  to  the  people  of 
Chio.  His  great  antagonist,  Judge  Thurman,  who,  two  years 
before,  had  publicly  testified  his  deliberate  judgment  as  to  the 
baselessness  of  the  now  revived  slanders  and  scandals,  was  so 
fairly  beaten,  and  by  such  an  overpowering  sentiment  in  favor  of 
Garfield,  that  his  supporters,  moved  by  his  own  lofty  spirit, 
joined  in  support  of  the  motion  to  make  Garfield's  nomination 
unanimous,  and  he  was  elected  without  a  dissenting  vote.  By 
this  unprecedented  vote,  the  State  of  Ohio,  which  knew  Gar- 
field  from  the  beginning,  and  had  sifted  all  the  slanders  that 
malice  and  ignorance  have  combined  to  invent  and  keep  alive, 
has  cast  her  broad  and  protecting  mantle  over  the  greatest  of  her 
sons.  The  prophet  that  is  thus  honored  "  in  his  own  country" 
must  have  a  record  that  will  stand  the  minutest  scrutiny,  and 
'those  who  know  less  of  him  than  his  own  fellow  "  Buckeyes" 
should  learn  all  the  facts  known  to  Ohioans  about  Garfield,  be 
fore  attempting  to  reverse  Ohio's  judgment. 

NOTE. — A  week  after  his  election,  Garfield  had  a  reception  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  at  Columbus,  and,  before  the  assembled  Legislature  and  a 
large  number  of  other  citizens,  delivered  a  speech  which  was  a  model  of 


204          THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD. 

Which  inevitably  brings  me  to  a  few  allusions  to  the  only  por 
tion  of  GarfielcTs  public  career  which  has  ever  given  him  serious 
annoyance.  It  was  that  in  which  arose  the  wholly  inadequate 
foundations  for  what  are  known  as  the  ''  Credit  Mobilier, " 
"  De  Goiyer,"  and  "  Back  Pay11  scandals.  As  to  them,  he  has 
made  the  fullest  and  most  satisfactory  explanations  to  those 
who  were  most  directly  interested  in  ascertaining  the  exact  degree 
of  his  culpability,  if  any  at  all  existed.  His  defences  were 
published  and  widely  circulated  at  the  time  when  our  newspa 
pers  and  people  were  in  the  habit  of  condemning  public  men 
as  soon  as  the  latter  were  accused,  and  then  considering  whether 
the  condemned  could  "  prove  themselves  innocent,"  which 
neither  the  law  nor  the  everlasting  principles  of  justice  require 
any  man  to  do.  But  after  epidemics  of  official  corruption  there 
always  follow  epidemics  of  promiscuous  censure  and  flaming 

eloquence.  It  contained  one  paragraph  which  would  not  have  been  spoken  by 
any  man,  under  the  circumstances,  to  men  of  both  parties  who  had  known  him 
his  whole  life-time,  bad  he  not  enjoyed  "  a  conscience  void  of  offence."  Said 
he  :  "  And  now,  gentlemen  of  the  General  Assembly  without  distinction  of 
party,  I  recognize  this  tribute  and  compliment  made  to  me  to-night.  Whatever 
my  own  course  may  be  in  the  future,  a  large  share  of  the  inspiration  of  my 
future  public  life  will  be  drawn  from  this  occasion  and  these  surroundings,  and 
I  shall  feel  anew  the  sense  of  obligation  that  I  feel  to  the  State  of  Ohio.  Let  me 
venture  to  point  a  single  sentence  in  regard  to  that  work.  During  the  twenty 
years  that  I  have  been  in  public  life,  almost  eighteen  of  it  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  I  have  tried  to  do  one  thing.  Whether  I  was  mistaken  or 
otherwise,  it  has  been  the  plan  of  my  life  to  folk>w_iny  .conviction  at  whatever 
personal  cost  to  myself.  I  have  represented  for  many  years  a  district  in  Con 
gress  whose  approbation  I  greatly  desired  ;  but  though  it  may  seem,  perhaps,  a 
little  egotistical  to  say  it,  J  yet  desired  still  more  the  approbation  of  one  person, 
and  his  name  was  Garfield.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  He  is  the  only  man  that 
lam  compelled  to  sleep  with  [laughter],  and  eat  with,  and  live  with,  and  die 
with  ;  and  if  I  could  not  have  his  approbation,  I  should  have  bad  companion 
ship.  [Renewed  laughter  and  applause.]  And  in  this  larger  constituency, 
which  has  called  me  to  represent  them  now,  I  can  only  do  what  is  true  to  my 
best  self,  applying  the  sauie  rule.  And  if  I  should  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  lose 
the  confidence  of  this  larger  constituency,  I  must  do  what  every  other  fair- 
minded  man  has  to  do— carry  bis  political  life  in  his  hand  and  take  the  con- 
.sequences.  But  I  must  follow  what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  only  safe  rule  of  my 
life  ;  and  with  that  view  of  the  case,  and  with  that  much  personal  reference,  I 
leave  that  subject.1' 


THE   LIFE   OF  QEH.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD.  205 

virtue.  The  drift-wood  of  a  wave  of  fierce  and  ill-considered 
newspaper  comment  on  Garfield  is  still  preserved  and  displayed 
by  malignant  partisan  organs,  probably  to  the  annoyance  of  the 
respectable  journals  that  have  seen  and  admitted  how  unjust 
were  their  hasty  contemporary  criticisms.  Thus  the  very  dregs 
of  the  Past  are  cherished  and  thrust  into  the  living  waters  of 
the  Present. 

There  is  nothing  new  or  strange  about  these  reiterations  of 
charges  that  have  been  fully  met  and  answered,  even  to  the 
satisfaction  of  so  independent,  critical,  and  almost  cynical 
a  judge  of  public  men  as  the  Nation.  The  charges  against  Gar- 
field  are  mild,  tame,  and  colorless  compared  with  those  that 
were  persistently  brought  against  Washington,  Jefferson,  the 
two  great  Adamses,  Jackson,  and  Clay.  Even  without  the  con 
clusive  testimony  of  the  man  who  knew  all  about  the  facts  on 
which  these  charges  rest,  and  who  has  always  been  a  bitter  polit 
ical  foe  of  Garfield,  Judge  Jeremiah  S.  Black  ;  without  the 
testimony  of  Judge  Poland,  the  chairman  of  the  committee  that 
investigated  the  "  Credit  Mobilier"  scandals  ;  without  the  com 
prehensive  defences  made  by  Garfield  himself,  which  satisfied  a 
most  exacting  and  enlightened  constituency  ;  without  the  testi 
mony  in  his  behalf  of  such  an  able  representative  of  the  most 
aggressive  Democracy  of  the  South  as  Henry  Watterson  ;  no 
man  who  knows  Garfield  well — his  history,  his  opportunities  for 
making  fortunes  by  the  undiscoverable  and  unpunishable  exer 
cise  of  his  official  opportunities  as  chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Appropriations  ;  the  constant  narrowness  of  his  means  for  a 
plain  though  generous  style  of  living  ;  his  struggles  with 
debt ;  the  ingenuousness  of  his  nature  and  its  utter  freedom 
from  guile,  craft,  or  deceit — would  listen  with  patience,  much 
less  with  credence,  to  the  stale  scandals  that  can  no  more  affect 
the  people's  judgment  of  his  character  for  integrity,  than  would 
any  sort  of  scandals  as  to  the  courage  of  Grant  or  Sheridan,  the 
honor  of  Bayard,  the  truthfulness  of  Washington,  or  the  purity 
of  Channing,  affect  the  people's  judgment  as  to  the  traits  assailed. 
Whoever  knows  Garfield  knows  that  corruptionism  could  no 


.v'06  THE   LIFE   OF   GEIT.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

more  taint  his  blood  than  cowardice  could  have  blanched  th<* 
cheeks  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney.  And  if  I  have  succeeded  in  im 
parting  to  my  readers  any  tolerable  conception  .of  the  sort  of 
man  that  he,  by.his  ancestry,  breeding,  habits,  life,  and  trials, 
has  become,  they  would  be  offended  by  any  elaborate  defence 
of  his  character  against  scandals  that  cannot  be  made  to  stick 
to  it. 


[Mr.  George  William  Curtis,  iu  Harper's  Weekly,  has  pierced  the  heart  of  the 
"  Credit  Mobilier"  slander  with  a  single  arrow  from  a  full  quiver.  Says  he  : 
*'  The  authors  of  the  report — [the  Poland  Report] — may  have  thought  it  necessary 
to  show  their  impartiality  by  sacrificing  some  of  their  own  party  friends.  But 
whatever  the  reason  of  their  action,  the  whole  case,  so  far  as  Mr.  Garfield  is  con 
cerned,  is  a  question  of  veracity  between  him  and  Oakes  Aines.  Comparing 
Ames's  testimony  regarding  Mr.  Garfield  with  ihat  in  reference  to  others,  it  will 
be  seen  that  when  he  testified  from  memory,  he  acquitted  Mr.  Garfield  entirely, 
and  afterward,  in  every  case  except  that  of  Mr.  Garfield,  he  produced  some  doc 
umentary  evidence,  certificates  of  stock,  receipts  of  money  or  dividends,  checks 
bearing  the  full  names  or  the  initials  of  the  persons  to  whom  they  purported  to 
have  been  paid,  or  entries  in  his  diary  of  accounts,  marked  'adjusted  and  closed.' 
>ro  such  evidence,  or  any  other  but  Mr.  Ames's  assertion  and  his  diary,  was  pro 
duced  in  Mr.  Garfield's  case,  and  nobody  ever  pretended  or  supposed  that  such 
evidence  exists  or  ever  existed.  The  admitted  facts  of  the  transaction,  and  the 
character  of  Mr.  Garfield,  never  before  or  since  impeached  by  friend  or  foe,  and  im 
peached  in  this  case  not  only  by  a  man  engaged  in  bribery,  but  who  confesses  that 
he  may  be  mistaken,  who  cannot  explain  why  he  did  not  give  Mr.  Garfield  the 
stock  which  he  said  Mr.  Garfield  had  paid  for,  and  who  does  not  pretend  to  eay 
why  Mr.  Garfield  did  not  ask  for  the  rest  of  the  money  which  was  due  to  him. 
have  already  completely  acquitted  Mr.  Garfield  in  every  candid  mind."] 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

HIBAM,  October  26,  1865. 

I  do  not  remember  to  have  claimed  that  St.  Cyril  was  tinctured  with  Neo- 
platonism ;  but  I  did  say  that  the  Church  at  Alexandria  was  considerably  influ 
enced  by  the  doctrines  of  that  sect.  1  have  looked  iuto  it  a  little  and  find  a  con 
siderable  variety  of  opinions  among  different  authors.  Gibbon  speaks  of  it  ae 
an  attempt  to  reconcile  the  doctrines  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  says  that  as  a 
philosophy  it  is  unworthy  of  notice.  It  is  only  important  as  connected  with 
Christianity.  The  bigotry  and  folly  of  the  Church  persecuted  it.  Gibbon's  com 
mentator  says  the  Neoplatonists  were  not  at  war  with  Christianity,  but  desired 
to  apply  their  philosophy  to  the  religion  of  Christ.  Gibbon  speaks  of  it  also  as 
an  attempt  to  revive  Paganism.  See  also  his  interesting  account  of  Julian  the 
Apostate,  who  was  a  Neoplatonist  for  a  while. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  CARFIELD.  207 


(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  JUnsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  Februarys,  1871. 

I  appreciate  all  the  difficulties  of  the  Governorship  question  as  you  present 
them.  I  have  answered  our  friends  in  the  Legislature  by  positively  refusing  to 
be  a  candidate,  and  have  tried  to  explain  to  them  the  grounds  of  my  refusal. 

I  think  there  ie  great  danger  of  my  giving  offence  by  this  course,  but  I  can 
not  help  it.  I  may  see  the  case  differently  hereafter,  but  I  think  not. 


(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.') 

WASHINGTON,  January  1,  1872. 

In  regard  to  the  authenticity  and  purity  of  the  Shakespeare  text  I  have  made 
some  considerable  study,  and  with  what  I  have  already  done,  I  hope  to  be  able 
to  get  something  for  you  at  the  library  either  in  the  way  of  a  loan  or  of  refer 
ence,  and  I  will  attend  to  it  soon.  .  .  . 

Have  you  seen  the  new  book  on  Physical  Geography  by  the  French  writer 
Reclus  ?  A  translation  has  just  been  published  in  New  York.  I  have  looked 
over  it,  and  think  it  a  remarkably  valuable  book.  The  Evening  Post  has  said  of 
it  within  the  past  two  or  three  days  that  it  is  the  completest  work  extant  on  that 
subject. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  Hlnsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  11,  18721 

The  Senatorship  went  as  I  expected  it  would.  I  may  say  to  you,  however, 
that  the  Democrats  tendered  to  me  their  unanimous  vote,  and  enough  Republi 
cans  to  elect  with  the  help  of  the  Democrats  expressed  themselves  willing  to 
bolt  from  the  caucus  nomination.  It  was,  I  confess,  some  temptation  with  some 
risk.  A  position  obtained  in  that  way  would  have  been  an  independent  one. 
But,  on  the  whole,  though  the  Democrats  did  not  demand  any  conditions,  I  felt 
I  would  be  considered  as  placed  under  obligations,  and  therefore  declined.  What 
§ay  you,  was  it  wise  or  otherwise  ? 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  February  22,  1872. 

Yonrs  of  the  16th  instant  is  received.  I  am  glad  to  know  that  somebody  has 
related  the  subject  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  in  an  intelligent  way.  It  has  al 
ways  been  to  me  one  of  the  dark  points  in  European  history.  I  shall  get  the 
book  without  delay,  and  read  it  as  soon  as  I  can  steal  time  enough  from  work  and 


Since  I  wrote  you  last  I  found  a  book  which  interests  me  very  much.  You 
may  have  seen  it ;  if  not,  I  hope  you  will  get  it.  It  is  entitled  "  Ten  Great  Re 
ligions,"  by  James  Freeman  Clarke.  I  have  read  the  chapter  on  Buddhism  witk 
great  interest.  It  is  admirably  written,  in  a  liberal  and  philosophical  spirit,  and 
I  am  sure  will  interest  you.  What  I  have  read  of  it  leads  me  to  believe  that  we 
have  taken  too  narrow  a  view  of  the  subject  of  religion. 


208  THE   LIFE   OF   GEH.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

(Garjleld  to  B.  A.  Hinsdalc.) 

WASHINGTON,  December  31, 1872. 

The  astonishing  reverses  of  political  life  during  the  past  year  mark  an  epoch 
in  our  history  and  tend  to  sadden  one's  views  of  that  kind  of  a  career.  There 
is  something  so  touching,  so  pathetically  tragic  in  the  last  days  of  Mr.  Greeley, 
that  it  throws  a  shadow  over  all  the  walks  and  ways  of  public  men. 

We  are  in  a  singular  condition  here  in  Congress.  There  is  virtually  no  op 
position  to  the  Republican  party.  The  Democracy  are  stunned,  perhaps  killed, 
by  their  late  defeat,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  limit  to  the  power  of  the  Dominant 
party.  If  to  its  great  strength  it  shall  add,  as  I  fear,  arrogance  and  recklessness, 
it  will  break  in  two  before  the  next  administration  goes  far. 

The  Credit  Mobilier  scandal  has  given  me  much  pain.  As  I  told  you  last  fall, 
I  feared  it  would  turn  out  that  the  company  itself  was  a  bad  thing.  So  I  think 
it  will,  and  perhaps  some  members  of  Congress  were  consciously  parties  to  its 
plans.  It  has  been  a  new  form  of  trial  for  me  to  see  my  name  flying  the  rounds 
of  the  press  in  connection  with  the  basest  of  crimes.  It  is  not  enough  for  one 
to  know  that  his  heart  and  motives  have  been  pure  and  true  if  he  ia  not  sure  but 
that  good  men  here  and  there,  who  do  not  know  him,  will  set  him  down  among 
the  lowest  men  of  doubtful  morality.  There  is  nothing  in  my  relation  to  the 
case  for  which  the  tenderest  conscience  or  the  most  scrupulous  honor  can  blame 
me.  It  is  fortunate  that  I  never  fully  concluded  to  accept  the  offer  made  me  ' 
but  it  grieves  me  greatly  to  have  been  negotiating  with  a  man  who  had  so  little 
sense  of  truth  and  honor  as  to  use  his  proposals  for  a  purpose  in  a  way  now  ap 
parent  to  me.  I  shall  go  before  the  committee,  and  in  due  time  before  the  House, 
with  a  full  statement  of  all  that  is  essential  to  the  case  so  far  as  I  am  concerned. 
You  and  I  are  now  nearly  in  middle  life,  and  have  not  yet  become  soured  and 
shrivelled  with  the  wear  and  tear  of  life.  Let  us  pray  to  be  delivered  from  that 
condition  where  life  and  nature  have  no  freeh,  sweet  sensations  for  us. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  ffimdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  27,  1873. 

Ton  have  seen  the  second  testimony  of  Mr.  Ames  is  utterly  in  conflict  with 
his  first,  and  clearly  inspired  by  a  desire  to  protect  himself  against  the  threatened 
suit  of  the  company  to  account  to  them  for  the  stock  he  did  not  sell  as  pretended. 
I  am  involved,  as  the  whole  subject  now  is,  in  a  storm  of  general  obloquy  and  in 
the  falsehoods  which  Mr.  Ames  has  thrown  into  it.  No  one  can  tell  the  extent  of 
damage  it  will  work  to  individual  reputations.  It  is  clear  to  my  mind  that  I  shall 
suffer  to  some  extent  in  consequence  of  his  wickedness. 

He  has  produced  a  pretended  memorandum  of  an  account  with  me — a  mem 
orandum  of  his  own  making— which  he  says  he  copied  from  his  books  ;  but 
these  he  has  not  produced. 

The  only  course  for  me  to  take  for  the  present  is  to  bear  in  silence  whatever 
is  cast  upon  me  until  the  investigation  is  concluded.  Then  I  shall  speak.  The 
condition  of  panic  into  which  the  public  mind  is  thrown  makes  it  nearly  impos 
sible  either  to  speak  or  listen  with  calmness  and  judicial  fairness.  In  the  mean 
time  I  bespeak  the  patience  of  my  friends. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD.  209 


(Garfield  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  February  8,  1873. 

Nothing  new  has  transpired  since  you  wrote  except  that  Ames  has  been  or 
dered  to  bring  his  original  books  and  memoranda.  None  of  the  papers  that  he 
presented  to  the  committee  in  the  form  of  accounts  were  original  except  the  re 
ceipts  in  Patterson's  case.  He  does  not  pretend  to  have  any  receipts  from  me, 
nor  any  other  evidence  of  the  points  in  which  our  testimony  conflicts.  The  com 
mittee  themselves  have  been  stampeded  by  the  general  spirit  of  panic  that  has 
prevailed,  and,  though  some  of  them  are  good  lawyers,  they  have  not  applied  the 
rules  of  evidence  to  this  investigation.  I  think  the  indications  are  that  the  men 
here  are  recovering  their  balance  a  little,  and  begin  to  think  with  more  calmness 
ou  the  merits  of  the  case.  But  it  is,  even  yet,  too  early  to  tell  into  what  conclu 
sions  the  public  judgment  will  settle  down.  .  .  . 

I  expect  Judge  Black  in  town  to-day,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  will  re 
member  that  I  gave  him  three  years  ago  the  same  account  of  my  relation  to  the 
Credit  Mobilier  as  I  have  given  in  my  testimony. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  February  15, 1873. 

Ames  has  come  and  made  whatever  exhibition  his  memorandum-book  enabled 
him  to  make.  I  cannot  see  that  he  has  added  anything  to  the  strengthening  of 
his  case  by  the  production  of  the  book.  The  impression  here  is  beginning  to 
prevail  that  he  fixed  up  his  memorandum  for  use  with  his  company,  to  make 
them  believe  he  had  effected  sales  of  his  stock. 

I  think  it  is  clear  that  Ames  intended  to  get  members  of  Congress  interested 
in  this  company  without  saying  anything  to  them  to  indicate  his  purpose.  He 
does  not  pretend  to  have  any  receipt  of  mine  or  any  other  evidence  but  his  state 
ment  in  his  book  of  the  transaction  which  he  alleges  took  place  between  us. 

The  investigation  is  really  done  now,  and  the  report  will  probably  be  finished 
in  the  course  of  three  or  four  days. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  March  19, 1873. 

I  am  thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  way  my  vote  on  the  salary  question  is 
treated,  and  I  feel  as  if  there  was  but  little  use  in  attempting  to  resist  the  sense 
less  and  wicked  clamor  which  is  being  raised  on  the  subject. 

It  is  very  singular  to  notice  how  differently  the  subject  is  treated  in  different 
parts  of  the  country.  In  some,  at  least,  the  increase  of  salaries,  together  with 
the  retroactive  clause,  is  stoutly  defended,  and  but  little  criticism  is  made. 

I  feel  this  morning,  though  I  would  not  say  this  except  to  you,  like  throwing 
up  my  position  in  disgust  and  retiring  from  a  field  where  ten  years  of  honest 
work  goes  for  naught  in  the  face  of  one  vote,  of  which,  at  the  very  most,  it  can 
be  said  to  be  only  a  mistake  honestly  made,  and  which  could  not  possibly  have 
changed  the  result. 

Were  it  not  for  the  Credit  Mobilier  I  believe  I  would  resign. 

I  have  not  drawn  the  additional  salary,  and  do  not  know  that  I  shall.  Cer 
tainly,  I  shall  not  for  the  present,  and  probably  not  at  all.  But  this  I  will  not 
say  in  the  midst  of  this  storm. 


210  THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

(Garfteld  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  March  21,  1873. 

When  I  find  that  I  voted  no  less  than  fifteen  times  against  motions  made  in 
favor  of  the  salary  amendment,  and  did  all  in  my  power,  both  by  speech  and 
vote,  to  prevent  it,  I  feel  keenly  the  injustice  with  which  the  public  are  treating 
me  on  this  subject,  and  I  begin  to  get  really  angry  over  it. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  ffinedale.) 

WASHINGTON,  April  4, 1873. 

I  agree  in  all  you  say  on  the  question  of  back-pay  ;  but  neither  truth  nor 
ability  seemed  to  avail  anything  in  the  face  of  this  temptation.  I  not  only  have 
never  drawn  the  extra  pay,  but,  nearly  two  weeks  ago,  I  ordered  the  Sergeant- 
at-Arms  to  close  my  account,  and  directed  my  back-pay  due  me,  $4500,  to  be 
covered  into  the  Treasury  beyond  my  reach,  or  that  of  my  heirs  in  case  of  my 
death.  That  has  been  done  ;  but  I  felt  that  under  no  circumstances  would  I 
allow  it  to  be  known  publicly,  at  least  for  the  present.  It  may,  however,  be 
necessary  by  and  by  to  let  the  fact  come  out.  What  do  you  think  ? 

*****  *  *  * 

One  phase  of  this  case  is  most  singular.  Here  in  Washington,  among  all  the 
men  who  most  earnestly  opposed  the  salary  clause  from  the  start,  I  have  none 
who  attack  me  for  the  course  I  have  taken,  while  at  home  the  condemnation 
seems  to  be  universal.  You  know  that  I  have  always  said  that  my  whole  public 
life  was  an  experiment  to  determine  whether  an  intelligent  people  would  sustain 
a  man  in  acting  sensibly  on  each  proposition  that  arose,  and  in  doing  nothing 
for  mere  show  or  for  demagogical  effect.  I  do  not  now  remember  that  I  ever 
cast  a  vote  of  that  latter  sort.  Perhaps  it  is  true  that  the  demagogue  will  suc 
ceed  when  honorable  statesmanship  will  fail.  If  so,  public  life  is  the  hollowest 
of  all  shame. 

(Garfield  to  Col.  A.  F.  Rockwell.) 

WASHINGTON,  May  21,  1873. 

After  many  years  of  prosperity  and  success,  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  tiy 
the  discipline  of  disaster,  without  any  fault  or  wrong  on  my  part.  My  name  has 
been  dragged  into  the  whirlpool  of  calumny,  and  I  have  been  defending  myself 
against  assault.  I  enclose  you  a  copy  of  my  review  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  ras 
cality,  and  shall  be  glad  to  know  how  it  strikes  you.  I  think  of  you  as  away, 
and  in  an  elysium  of  quiet  and  peace,  where  I  should  love  to  be,  out  of  the 
storm  and  in  the  sunshine  of  love  and  books.  Do  not  think  from  the  above  that 
I  am  despondent.  There  is  life  and  hope  and  fight  in  your  old  friend  yet. 

(Garfleld  to  Col.  A.  F.  Rockwell., 

WASHINGTON,  Jannary  15,  1874. 

Permit  me  to  transcribe  a  metrical  version  which  I  made  the  other  day  of 
the  third  ode  of  Horace's  first  book.  It  is  still  in  the  rough  : 

TO  THE  SHIP  WHICH  CARRIED  VIRGIL  TO  ATHENS. 
I. 

So  may  the  powerful  goddess  of  Cyprus, 
So  may  the  brothers  of  Helen,  twin  stars. 
So  may  the  father  and  ruler  of  tempest 
(Reetrainingall  others,  save  only  lapix). 


THE   LIFE  OF  GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  213 


n. 

Guide  thee.  O  ship,  on  thy  journey,  that  oweet 
To  Attica's  shores  Virgil  trusted  to  thee. 
I  pray  thee  restore  him,  in  safety  restore  him, 
And  saving  him,  save  me  the  half  of  my  soul. 

in. 

Stout  oak  and  brass  triple  surrounded  his  bosom 
Who  first  to  the  waves  of  the  merciless  sea 
Committed  bis  frail  bark.    He  feared  not  Africus, 
Fierce  battling  the  gales  of  the  furious  North. 

IV. 

Nor  feared  he  the  gloom  of  the  rain-bearing  Hyads, 
Nor  the  rage  of  fierce  Notus  a  tyrant  than  whom 
No  storm-god  that  rules  o'er  the  broad  Adriatic 
la  mightier,  its  billows  to  rouse  or  to  calm. 

v. 

What  form,  or  what  pathway  of  death  him  affrighted, 

Who  faced  with  dry  eyes  monsters  swimming  the  deep, 

Who  gazed  without  fear  on  the  storm-swollen  billows, 

And  the  lightning-scarred  rocks,  grim  with  death  on  the  shore  t 

n. 

In  vain  did  the  prudent  Creator  dissever 
The  lands  from  the  lands  by  the  desolate  sea, 
If  o'er  its  broad  bosom,  to  mortals  forbidden, 
Still  leap,  all  profanely,  our  impious  keels. 

VII. 

Recklessly  bold  to  encounter  all  dangers, 
Through  deeds  God  forbidden  still  rushes  our  ra«e ; 
The  son  of  Japelus,  Heaven-defying, 
By  impious  fraud  to  the  nations  brought  fire. 

VIII. 

When  fire  was  thus  stolen  from  regions  celestial 
Decay  smote  the  earth  and  brought  down  in  his  train 
A  new.  summoned  cohort  of  fevers  o'erbrooding, 
And  Fate,  till  then  slow  and  reluctant  to  strike, 

IX. 

Gave  wings  to  his  speed  and  swift  death  to  his  victims. 
Bold  Daedalus  tried  the  void  realms  of  the  air, 
Borne  upward  on  pinions  not  given  to  mortals. 
The  labors  of  Hercules  broke  into  Hell. 

x. 

Naught  is  too  high  for  the  daring  of  mortals, 

Even  Heaven  we  seek  in  our  folly  to  scale  : 

By  our  own  impious  crimes  we  permit  not  the  thunder 

To  sleep  without  flame  in  the  right  hand  of  Jove. 

I  can  better  most  of  these  verses,  but  send  them  to  you  as  I  left  them  in  the 
iirst  rough  draft. 

(Oarfleld  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 
„  WASHINGTON,  July  30, 1873. 

In  the  course  of  thinking  over  your  life  and  mine,  I  was  strongly  impressed 
with  the  conviction  that  voii  and  I  ought  to  study  German  and  master  it.    I  had 


212  THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

considerable  knowledge  of  iteome  years  ago,  but  have  neglected  it  and  should 
need  to  begin  the  work  almost  anew.  French  has  been  more  important  to  me, 
for  the  reason  that  more  financial  discussion  appears  in  French  than  in  German. 
But  to  profound  theological  scholarship  German  is  indispensable.  I  think 
your  mind  is  rather  of  the  Teutonic  type,  and  you  would  be  immeasurably  bene 
fited  were  you  to  draw  from  the  great  German  storehouse  of  criticism.  It  is  a 
large  undertaking  to  master  a  foreign  language  ;  but  1  think  vou  ought  to  under 
take  it  at  once. 

(Qarfield  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON.  October  27, 1873. 

I  have  read  the  paper  of  Mr.  Warren,  as  reported  in  the  Methodist,  and  have 
stopped  to  consider  the  marked  passage.  The  statement  of  the  author  in  refer 
ence  to  the  part  played  by  Whitefield  in  laying  the  foundation  of  colonial  unity,  i3 
new  to  me.  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  historically  true  ;  but  it  bears  many  external 
evidences  of  truth.  If  it  is  true,  it  is  a  very  important  element  in  the  history  of 
this  Republic,  and  shows  that  religion  played  even  a  broader  part  in  the  forma 
tion  of  our  nation  than  I  had  supposed.  After  reading  the  article,  I  read  a  brief 
sketch  of  WhitefiekVs  life  in  Brown's  Encyclopaedia,  and  find  some  discrepancies 
between  that  and  Warren.  For  example,  Warren  Bays  that  Whitefield  crossed 
the  Atlantic  nineteen  times.  The  Encyclopaedia  mentions  each  of  his  voyages 
by  date,  and  eaya  that  his  seventh  was  his  last.  This  would  make  thirteen  times 
across  the  Atlantic.  The  Encyclopaedia  seems  to  have  viewed  Whitefield's  life 
mainly  from  an  English  standpoint,  and  it  may  be  for  that  reason  that  his 
American  work  does  not  stand  out  in  such  prominence  in  the  Encyclopaedia  as 
in  Warren's  article. 

If  I  had  had  time  in  my  lecture  last  evening,  I  should  have  spoken  of  the 
struggle  between  Protestantism  and  Catholicism  for  the  possession  of  this  conti 
nent.  Warren's  article  informs  us  how  striking  was  the  contrast  betw«en  the 
unity  of  the  ecclesiastical  power  of  France  and  Spain  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
discord  of  the  English  Protestants  on  the  Atlantic  slope  on  the  other.  If  White- 
field  brought  about  ecclesiastical  union,  he  prepared  the  way  for  the  colonial 
triumph  of  England  over  France  in  1763,  and  the  triumph  of  the  colonies  over 
England  in  1783. 


(Garfldd  to  B.  A.  ffinsddle.') 

WASHINGTON,  January  8,  1874. 

I  can't  see  that  he  (John  Stuart  Mill)  ever  came  to  comprehend  human  life 
as  a  reality  from  the  actual  course  of  human  affairs  beginning  with  Greek  life 
down  to  our  own.  Men  and  women  were  always,  with  him,  more  or  less  of  the 
nature  01  abstractions  ;  while,  with  his  enormous  mass  of  books,  h«  learned  a 
wonderful  power  of  analysis,  for  which  he  was  by  nature  surprisingly  fitted.  'But 
his  education  was  narrow  just  where  his  own  mind  was  originally  deficient.  He 
was  educated  solely  through  books ;  for  his  father  was  never  a  companion.  His 
brothers  and  sisters  bored  him.  He  had  no  playfellows,  and  of  hie  mothw  not  a 
word  is  said  in  his  autobiography. 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  213 


(Garfield  toB  A.  Hinsdcdf,.) 

WASHINGTON,  March  31,  1874. 

I  have  sent  you  by  to-day's  mail  copies  of  such  of  my  pamphlet  speeches  as 
I  have  on  hand  that  are  not  in  The  list  you  t*ent  me.  This  is  not  all,  but  it  is  nearly 
all :  Argument  before  Supreme  Court,  March  6th,  1866  ;  Public  Debt  and  Specie 
Payments.  March  16th,  1866 ;  Freednian's  Bureau,  February  1st,  1866 ;  In  Me- 
moriara  Abraham  Lincoln,  April  14th,  1866  ;  Rebel  States  under  Military  Con 
trol,  February  8th,  1867 ;  College  Education,  Juue  14th,  1867  ;  Reconstruction,  Jan 
uary  l?th,  1868  ;  Impeachment  of  Andrew  Johnson,  March  2d,  1808  ;  Oration  at 
Wilmington,  May  30th,  1866  ;  Elements  of  Success.  June  29th,  1869  ,  Public  Ex- 
penditures  and  Civil  Service,  March  14th,  1870  ;  The  Tariff,  April  1st,  1870  ;  The 
McGarrahan  Claim,  February  20th,  1871  :  Public  Expenditures,  January  23d, 
1872  ;  National  Aid  to  Education,  February  6th,  1872  :  Campaign  on  the  Reserve, 
July  31st,  1872;  Increase  of  Salaries,  March  27th,  1873  .  Credit  Mobilier  Company, 
May  8th,  1873 ;  Revenues  and  Expenditures,  March  5th,  1874. 

(Garfidd  toB.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  April  20th,  1874 

The  latest  news  from  Columbus  seems  to  indicate  that  the  re-districting 
scheme  has  broken  down.  Still,  it  may  possibly  succeed,  and  George  H.  Ford 
writes  me  he  believes  it  will  before  the  session  ends.  Personally,  I  shall  be  glad 
to  be  districted  out,  so  that  I  can  have  a  good  excuse  fcr  quitting  public  life; 
but  I  am  t'till  receiving  requests  to  change  my  residence,  so  as  to  stay  in  the  old 
Nineteenth. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  November  14,  1874. 

I  have  commenced  work  as;ain  on  my  committee,  but  still  I  may  find  time 
to  do  some  reading.  My  reading,  however,  is  like  the  wanderings  of  a  man  in 
a  pleasant  forest,  without  much  plan  or  purpose.  I  am  now,  however,  trying  to 
get  a  better  view  of  the  literature  and  intellectual  life  of  Germany  connected 
with  Goethe  and  his  times. 

V  , 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  4,  1875. 

With  me  the  year  1874  has  been  a  continuation  and  in  some  respects  an  ex 
aggeration  of  1873.  That  year  brought  me  unusual  trials,  and  brought  me  face 
to  face  with  personal  assaults  and  the  trial  thar  comes  from  calumny  arid  pub 
lic  displeasure.  This  year  has  perhaps  seen  the  culmination,  if  not  the  enfl,  of 
that  kind  of  experience.  I  have  had  much  discipline  of  mind  and  heart  in  liv 
ing  the  life  which  these  trials  brought  me.  Lately  I  have  bet-n  studying  my 
self  with  some  anxiety  to  see  how  deeply  the  shadows  have  settled  around  my 
spirit.  I  find  I  have  lost  much  of  that  exuberance  of  feeling,  that  cheerful 
spirit  which  I  think  abounded  in  me  before.  I  am  a  little  graver  and  less  genial 
than  I  was  before  the  storm  struck  me.  The  consciousness  of  this  came  to  me 
slowly,  but  I  have  at  last  given  iu  to  it,  ana  am  trying  to  counteract  the  tend 
ency. 


THE   LIFE  OF   GEX.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 


So  far  as  individual  work  is  concerned  I  have  done  something  to  keep  alive 
my  tastes  and  habits.  For  example,  since  I  left  you  1  have  made  a  somewhat 
thorough  study  of  Goethe  and  his  epoch,  and  have  sought  to  build  up  in  my 
mind  a  picture  of  the  state  of  literature  and  art  m  Europe,  at  the  period  when 
Goethe  began  to  work,  and  the  state  when  he  died.  1  have  grouped  the  various 
facts  into  order,  have  written  them  out,  so  as  to  preserve  a  memoir  of  the  im 
pression  made  upon  my  mind  by  the  whole.  The  sketch  covers  nearly  sixty 
pages  of  manuscript.  I  think  some  work  of  this  kind  outside  the  track  of  une's 
every -day  work  is  necessary  to  keep  up  real  growth. 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  Einsdale.') 

WASHINGTON,  July  8,  1875. 

I  am  taking  advantage  of  this  enforced  leisure  to  do  a  good  deal  of  reading. 
Since  I  was  taken  sick  I  have  read  the  following :  Sherman's  two  volumes  ; 
Leland's  "  English  Gipsies  ;"  George  Borrow 's  "  Gipsies  of  Spain  ;"  Sorrow's 
"  Hominaiiy  Rye;"  Tennyson's  "Mary  ;*'  seven  volumes  of  Froude's  England; 
several  plays  of  Shakespeare,  and  have  made  some  progress  in  a  new  book, 
which  1  think  you  will  be  glad  to  see,  "The  History  of  the  English  People," 
by  Prof.  Green,  of  Oxford,  in  one  volume. 

(Garfidd  to  B.  A.  JJinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  October  22, 1877. 

Since  receiving  your  postal  card  I  hare  read  Godwin  Smith's  essay  on  the 
Decline  of  Party  Government.  To  me  it  is  altogether  a  disappointing  paper. 
Many  of  his  facts  and  suggestions  are  interesting,  but  his  sugges'ions  of  substi 
tution  for  party  government  are  too  vague  to  be  of  any  value,  while  there  are 
grave  differences  of  opinion  among  men  on  questions  of  vital  importance, 
whether  in  church  or  state,  in  social  life  or  in  science.  There  will  ho  parties 
based  upon  those  conditions,  and  the  thing  most  desired  is  not  how  to  avoid  the 
existence  of  parties,  but  how  to  keep  them,  within  proper  bounds. 

(Garfleld  to  B.  A.  ffinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  November  14, 1877. 

It  if*  in  the  power  of  the  Democratic  Party  to  make  the  whole  country  rejoice 
in  the  President's  Southern  policy  :  \  ut  I  fear  their  usual  reactionary  spirit  will 
go  far  to  increase  public  dissatisfaction. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  Hinsdah.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  9, 1878. 

Concerning  the  future  J  feel  no  groat  certainty.  On  macy  accounts  I  prefer 
to  retire  from  public  life,  and  may  do  so;  but  the  present  struggle  for  honest 
money  seems  to  make  a  very  imperative  demand  on  me  to  stand  by  my  post  a 
little  longer. 

If  it  were  certain  that  the  Democrat?  are  to  come  into  power— and  that  seems 
to  be  probable— both  in  the  National  Government  and  to  continue  in  power  m 


THE  LIFE  OF  GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD.  215 

Ohio.  I  would  not  feel  like  continuing.    It  will  take  the  next  election  to  deter 
mine  Ohio's  future. 

On  the  whole,  it  is  probable  I  will  stand* again  for  the  House.  I  am  not  sure, 
however,  but  tlie  Nineteenth  District  will  go  back  ou  nie  on  the  silver  question. 
If  they  do  L  shall  count  it  an  honorable  discharge. 

(Garfteld  to  B.  A.  Hiiisdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  October  12,  1878. 

The  result  of  our  election  shows  the  value  of  a  sturdy  fight  for  principle. 
The  party  that  makes  that  will  always  win  in  the  long  run. 

(Garfleld  toB.  A.  Himdale.) 

MENTOR,  OHIO.  November  16, 1878. 

I  have  read  with  great  interest  and  satisfaction  your  little  volume  on  the 
Christian  Jewish  Church,  l.know  of  no  work  which  contains  within  such  small 
compass  so  complete  and  thorough  a  discussion  of  the  subject.  Youranalysiaof 
the  early  struggle  between  the  Jewish  and  Greek  Christians,  and  the  peculiar 
influences  of  the  Jewish  and  Greek  mind  upon  the  historical  development  of 
Christianity  throws  a  strong  and  clear  light  upon  many  portions  of  the  New  Tes 
tament,  and  affords  valuable  assistance  to  the  study  of  church  history.  Tho 
whole  book  is  pervaded  with  the  spirit  of  thorough  and  reverent  scholarship, 
and  you  deserve,  and  doubtless  will  receive,  the  gratitude  of  a  wide  circle  of 
readers. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  30,  1870. 

I  have  long  recognized  the  class  of  citizens  whom  you  designate  as  the 
"  left  centre,'1  that  occupy  that  broader  line  of  the  two  parties,  and  hold  slack 
allegiance  to  the  organic  ition  of  which  they  are  inembe  s.  1  have  no  doubt  they 
exercise  a  valuable  conservative  influence  upon  the  conduct  of  public  affairs  by 
resisting  extreme  measures  on  the  part  of  their  party.  Of  course,  they  exercise 
their  power  as  voters  and  writers.  I  think,  however,  there  never  has  been  any 
such  prominent  cla<s  in  Congress.  Of  course,  we  have  had  men  in  both  panics 
who  were  less  partisan  than  the  majority  of  their  associates,  and  who  have,  in  a 
measure,  represented  the  voters  referred  to.  Perhaps  it  would  be  well  if  we  had 
a  recognized  party  of  the  left  centre  in  Congress  ;  but  I  doubt  if  that  would  be 
possible  under  our  institutions. 

(Garjield  to  B.  A.  Eimdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  April  21,  1880. 

I  share  your  regret  that  I  am  so  much  absorbed  in  political  work  ;  but  the 
position  I  hold  in  the  House  requires  an  enormous  amount  of  surplus  work.  I 
am  compelled  to  look  ahead  at  questions  likely  to  be  sprung  upon  us  for  action, 
and  the  fact  is,  I  prepare  for  debate  on  ten  subjects  where  1  actually  take  part 
in  but  one.  For  example :  it  seemed  certain  that  the  Fitz-John  Porter  case 
would  be  discuss  d  in  the  House,  and  I  devoted  the  best  of  two  weeks  to  a  care 
ful  re-examination  of  the  old  material  and  a  study  of  the  new. 

There  is  now  lying  on  top  of  my  bookcase  a  pile  of  books,  revisions  and 


216          THE  LIFE  OF  GEN.  JAMES  A.  GARF1ELD. 

manuscripts  three  feet  long  by  a  foot  and  a  half  high  which  I  accumulated 
and  examined  for  a  debate  which  certainly  will  not  come  off  this  session,  and 
perhaps  not  at  all.  I  must  stand-  in  the  breach  to  meet  whatever  question 
comes.  .  .  . 

1  look  forward  to  the  Senate  as  at  least  a  temporary  relief  from  this  heavy 
work.  .  .  .  I  am  just  now  in  antagonism  with  my  own  party  on  legislation 
in  reference  to  the  election  law,  and  here  also  I  have  prepared  for  two  discus 
sions,  and  as  yet  have  not  spoken  on  either.  .  .  . 

Doubtless  you  are  right  in  supposing  that  the  government  is,  in  some  cases, 
the  mo?t  imperfect  part  of  the  social  organism.  That  is  so  because  all  free  gov 
ernments  are  managed  by  the  combined  wisdom  and  folly  of  the  people.  Per 
haps,  as  a  mere  matter  of  government,  a  good  despot  would  make  a  better  gov 
ernment  ;  but  for  the  education  of  the  people  governed,  a  good  despotism  is 
worse  than  freedom  with  its  admixture  of  folly.  .  .  . 

1  am  sorry  you  did  not  write  me  in  regard  to  my  going  to  Chicago.  I  have 
refused  to  be  a  delegate  from  my  district,  but  I  think  it  likely  that  the  State 
Convention  will  elect  me  as  delegate  at  large.  I  prefer  not  to  go  at  all,  but,  if  I 
am  chosen,  I  suppose  1  had  better  go. 

(Garfield  toB.  A.  Hinsdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  18,  1880. 

At  first,  let  me  say  that  among  the  1200  letters  and  telegrams  that  have  come 
tome  since  my  nomination  to  the  Senate,  no  one  has  touched  all  the  points  of 
the  case  so  perfectly  as  you  have  in  your  letter  of  the  13th  instant.  I  need  not 
nay  a  word  about  the  nomination  and  election  and  my  relations  to  it,  for  you  have 
eaid  it  all.  This,  however,  I  may  say  on  another  phase  of  the  subject :  on  many 
accounts  my  transfer  to  the  Senate  brings  sad  recollections.  Do  you  remember 
the  boy  "Joe"  in  one  of  Dickens'  novels  who  said  that  everybody  was  always 
telling  him  to  "move  on,"  that,  whenever  he  stopped  to  look  in  at  a  window  to 
long  for  gingerbread,  or  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  pictures,  the  voice  of  the  inexo 
rable  policeman  made  him  *' move  on  ?"  I  have  felt  something  of  this  in  the 
order  that  sends  me  away  from  the  House.  It  is  a  final  depurtur*. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

HOME   LIFE   AT    WASHINGTON    AND   MENTOR. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  is  one  of  the  most  domestic  of  men.  For 
tunate  in  the  home  of  his  early  life,  where  love,  self-sacrifice,  a 
cheerful  ^ligious  sentiment  and  perfect  purity  made  the  atmos 
phere  of  :ns  life  a  constant  source  of  healthful  inspiration  ;  en 
gaged  early  to  a  woman  who  has  been  his  fellow-student,  best 
counsellor  and  friend,  sharer  of  all  his  nobler  ambitions,  activi 
ties,  joys,  and  sorrows,  and  helpmeet  in  every  sense  of  the 
word  ;  with  his  heroic  mother  as  companion  and  friend,  in  his 
growing  household  ;  with  children  who  are  worthy  scions  of 
noble  stocks — intelligent,  promising,  loving  and  lovely  in  char 
acter  ;  with  a  nature  simple  in  its  tastes,  affectionate,  hospita 
ble,  averse  to  social  display  and  fashionable  distractions,  and 
utterly  incapable  of  enjoying  vicious  or  undomestic  pleasures — 
how  could  such  a  man's  home  help  being  filled  with  the  warm 
sunlight  of  his  generous  nature,  or  be  other  than  a  well-spring  of 
happiness  to  all  under  its  roof-tree  ?  Of  necessity  Garfield  has 
had  two-homes  since  he-  entered  Congress.  From  his  limited 
means  his  domestic  life  in  both  places  has  been  plain,  and  not. 
until  within  a  few  years  past  has  he  been  able  to  live  in  both 
places  in  a  style  suitable  even  for  a  family  so  quiet  and  simple 
in  its  tastes  and  social  ambitions  as  his  own.  In  fact,  it  has 
only  been  within  a  very  few  months  that  the  Ohio  home — that 
in  which  Garfield 's  free  and  farm-bred  nature  feels  most  at  ease 
— has  been  at  all  sufficient  for  its  master's  needs.  And  this 
Mentor  home,  which  the  name  "  Lawnfield  "  aptly  describes 
owes  its  enlargement  and  architectural  transformation  to  the 
taste  and  contriving  skill  of  his  thoughtful  and  planning  wife, 
who,  like  many  others  who  saw  his  proportions  before  the  peo 
ple  and  his  natural  destiny,  long  before  he  realized  or  thought 


218 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEJT.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 


of  either,  barely  got  her  graceful  and  enlarged  conceptions 
realized  in  the  new  home,  in  time  to  have  its  generous  capacity 
tested  to  the  uttermost  by  the  throngs  of  visitors  and  guests,  of 
high  and  low  degree,  who  have  compelled  General  Garfield,  in 
the  language  of  Governor  Foster,  to  "  keep  a  country  hotel" 


ION    liOllli. 


ever  since  the  Presidential  lightning  struck  the  biggest  head 
there  was  at  the  Chicago  Convention. 

To  the  Washington  home  I  have  already  alluded.  It  is  plain, 
well  arranged,  roomy,  comfortable,  and  economical.  When  the 
family  are  in  it,  there  is  no  limit  to  its  hospitality  :  it  is  always 
to  friends,  new  and  old,  high  and  humble,  plain  and  cul- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN'.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  219 

tured.  It  is  filled  with  the  mingled  atmosphere  of  politics, 
literature,  sociality,  family  culture  and  sports,  and  general  good 
nature.  One  might  say  it  was  a  literary  and  political  workshop 
and  headquarters,  if  it  were  not  such  a  centre  of  social  gather 
ings  and  pleasures.  Fortunately  it  is  not  a  large  house.  In 
that  case  Garfield  would  have  been  a  bankrupt  before  this  ;  for 
he  is  as  free  in  his  hospitalities  as  he  is  disinclined  and  unfitted 
for  making  money  by  any  other  way  then  by  honestly  earning 
it,  which  he  always  has  done,  "by  the  sweat  of  his  brow." 
But  his  old  and  intimate  friends  have  long  felt  that  there  was 
but  one  house  in  Washington  that  was  adequate  for  a  man  of 
his  nature,  means,  and  popularity.  It  is  very  large,  and  surround 
ed  by  fine  grounds,  that  afford  pleasant  prospects  and  breathing- 
room  for  the  big-lunged  and  i^ature-loving  farmer  of  Mentor. 
It  is  nobly  situated  between  the  Treasury  building  and  that  occu 
pied  by  the  State,  War,  and  Navy  Departments,  with  the  business 
and  occupants  of  which  he  has  become  so  familiar  that  the  loca 
tion  of  the  house  I  speak  of  seems  to  be  better  suited  to  his 
probable  needs  than  to  those  of  any  other  man  in  the  country, 
and  certainly  no  other  man  has  been  better  trained  for  the  busi 
ness  to  which  a  large  part  of  the  house  has  always  been  devot 
ed.  Popularly  this  is  called  "  the  White  House." 

The  new  Mentor  home,  however,  is  the  most  notable  and 
visited  place  in  the  country,  and  all  the  housekeeping  tact  and 
ability  of  Mrs.  Garfield  are  put  to  their  severest  test  by  the  crowd 
of  visitors.  That  she  was  equal  to  every  emergency,  and  seemed 
at  the  end  of  each  day's  "  country  hotel  "  keeping  as  fresh, 
undisturbed,  and  free  of  care-marks  as  though  the  daylight 
hours  had  passed  in  elegant  leisure,  I  can  testify  from  an  ex 
perience  of  an  eight  days'  visit  in  the  latter  part  of  June  and 
the  first  of  July,  when  "  Lawnfield  "  was  busiest  and  most 
populous.  In  that  eventful  period  for  the  Garfield  household  I 
failed  to  see  that  Governors  and  Senators  and  Congressmen  and 
Generals  and  committeemen  fared  any  better  or  were  treated 
with  more  courtesy  than  "common  people."  If  Governor 
Foster's  arrival  was  hailed  with  unusual  fervor  it  was  not  be- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  221 

cause  of  his  title,  but  because  he  was  greeted  as  the  old  friend 
"  Charles'1  or  "  Charlie  Foster11  by  the  older,  and  as  "  Uncle 
Charlie'1  by  the  younger  members  of  the  family.  His  response 
to  all  these  greetings  was  hearty,  but  especially  to  the  last. 

Driving  along  the  wide,  pleasant,  well-kept,  tree-shaded 
road,  for  six  miles  from  the  lovely  town  of  Painesville,  with  lawn- 
surrounded  houses  worthy  of  the  finest  suburbs  of  New  York, 
the  first  impressions  of  "  Lawnfield  "  are  decidedly  attractive. 
The  aspect  of  the  large,  well-proportioned  and  home-like  prod 
uct  of  Mrs.  Garfield's  skill  and  taste  is  that  of  the  country 
place  of  a  family  who  want  plenty  of  room,  in-doors  and  on 
piazzas  Although  costing  far  less  than  would  be  thought 
economical  for  a  carriage-house  up  the  Hudson,  it  is  by  no 
means  an  ordinary  or  uninteresting  structure.  To  be  particu 
lar  :  with  its  sixty  feet  of  front  and  fifty  of  depth  ;  with  its 
three  stories,  including  that  under  the  high  and  picturesque 
roof  ;  with  its  commodious  piazzas  without  and  wide  hallways 
within,  and  graceful  proportions  generally,  it  is  a  piece  of 
architecture  that  grows  in  one's  esteem,  especially  as  it  so 
admirably  fits  in  to  a  lovely  landscape  and  is  dignified  by  the 
number  of  the  out-buildings,  large  and  small,  all  suggesting  the 
uses  of  actual  farming  and  also  perfect  arrangement.  With  en 
closed  grass  fields  in  front  and  on  the  south-western  side  ;  with 
the  croquet  lawn  between  it  and  the  road  ;  with  the  orchard  and 
garden  on  the  east,  and  a  lane  in  the  rear  through  which  the 
sunset  glories  transfigure  the  bordering  trees,  and  with  the  book 
and  desk  and  table  filled  little  house  near  and  to  one  side  of 
the  rear,  it  suggests  truthfully  the  living  and  working  place  of 
a  family  enjoying  Nature's  most  human  aspect — that  in  which 
she  responds  to  all  of  healthy,  hard-working,  simple  human 
nature's  needs  and  tastes.  Its  interior  arrangements  show  care 
ful  and  thoughtful  provision  for  the  several  and  various  de 
mands  of  the  family,  especially  the  cosey  and  cheerful  up-stairs 
"snuggery11  of  the  General,  and  the  delightful  room,  on  the 
ground  floor,  with  the  front  piazza  on  'me  side,  the  garden  on 
another,  and  the  parlor  on  another,  devoted  to  the  uses  of  the 


222  THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD. 

most  important  and  one  of  the  busiest  members  of  the  house 
hold,  independent,  individual,  and  unique  u  Mother1'  Garfield, 
who  is  as  bright  and  vigorous  as  most  old  ladies  of  sixty  or  less, 
and  between  whom  and  her  "James*'  there  is  a  comradeship 
which  is  only  abandoned  when,  in  her  judgment,  the  compli 
ments  of  distinguished  guests  seem  likely  to  make  him  unmind 
ful  of  his  proper  filial  subordination.  And  yet,  six  months  be 
fore  the  Chicago  Convention,  this  mysterious  and  prophetic  old 
lady  one  day  startled  her  son  by  entering  his  room,  saying 
oracularly,  "James,  you  will  be  nominated  for  President  next 
June,"  and  departing  without  saying  or  waiting  for  another 
word.  She  knew  what  she  and  Providence  had  been  training 
him  for,  as  only  a  mother,  and  such  a  mother,  can  know  by  the 
mingled  intuitions  of  heart  and  head. 

The  household  was  enlivened  by  the  presence  of  the  Gen 
eral's  two  eldest  boys,  Harry  A.  and  James,  just  returned  from 
the  famous  St.  Paul's  School,  at  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  the 
former  bringing  a  well-earned  prize  for  English  declamation. 
There  were,  besides,  Mollie,  a  bright,  joyous,  beautiful  girl  just 
in  her  "  teens  ;*'  Jrvin  McDowell,  next  younger,  and  Abram,  the 
youngest  and  most  peculiar  of  a  flock  that  has  in  it  no  "  black 
sheep,"  together  with  the  son  and  daughter  of  Colonel  Rock 
well,  of  about  the  ages  of  Harry  and  Mollie.  These  are  not 
mentioned  by  way  of  mere  chronicling  of  personalities,  but  to 
illustrate  the  spirit  that  pervades  the  household  of  which  they 
were  the  life  and  light.  With  all  their  varied  studies  and  sports 
the  father  and  mother  seemed  to  sympathize,  arid  fully  entered 
into,  as  though  the  latter  were  but  "  children  of  a  larger 
growth.''  Love  took  the  place  of  authority  on  the  one  side, 
and  of  fear  on  the  other,  and  I  believe  the  father  had  a  more  re 
alizing  and  prouder  sense  of  his  boy  Harry's  success  and  manly 
promise  than  of  his  own  Triply  accumulated  political  honors. 
Nor  could  1  sec  that  any  member  of  the  family  seemed  to  be 
put  at  all  out  of  his  or  her  spiritual  gear  by  the  constant  and 
inevitable  allusions  of  visitors  to  the  probable  destiny  of  the 
plain  head  of  the  housenold.  One  might  have  supposed  that  it 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAAIES   A.  GARFIELD.  223 

had  "  run  in  the  family"  to  have  Presidential  honors,  to  which, 
be  it  added,  few  allusions  were  made  by  any  of  its  members, 
though  all  were  pervaded  with  a  pleased  consciousness  of  the 
future,  except  the  General  himself,  who  does  not  welcome  the 
approaching  close  of  the  free  and  unfettered  activities  that 
have  so  long  been  the  joy  of  his  vigorous  life.  And  he  did  wel 
come  every  good  chance  to  escape  from  the  work  of  dealing 
with  thousands  of  letters  and  dispatches  and  continual  politi 
cal  calls  and  conferences,  to  talk  over  old  times  and  inci 
dents  and  to  discuss  questions  far  removed  from  politics.  If 
ever  a  Presidential  candidate  was  free  from  self-consciousness, 
and  regarded  himself  only  as  the  standard-bearer  and  represent 
ative  of  a  great  party  and  great  principles,  James  A.  Garfield  is 
the  man. 

And  he  is  best  seen  and  known  at  his  Mentor  home,  which 
he  began  to  "  make"  three  years  ago  last  spring.  He  had  felt 
a  growing  longing  for  his  old-time  relations  with  Nature,  when 
by  hard  labor  he  earned  his  support  from  her  bounties.  He 
wanted  the  soul-resting  labor  of  actual  farming,  and  to  get 
fresh  vigor  from  actual  contact  with  "Mother  Earth."  So  he 
bought  part  of  the  farm  he  now  owns,  and  has  added  until  it 
comprises  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres.  Like  most  of  the 
farms  that  border  the  old  turnpike,  or  u  ridge-road,"  neartho 
shore  of  Lake  Erie,  it  has  a  small  frontage,  only  fifty  rods,  and 
runs  back,  across  the  "  ridge,"  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  the 
rear,  which  was  the  old  and  wave-beaten  shore  of  the  lake, 
down  across  the  low  and  spring-moistened  alluvial  soil  of  the 
beautiful  valley,  in  the  middle  of  which,  on  the  tracks  of  the 
Lake  Shore  Railway,  the  long  and  thundering  trains,  bearing 
the  mighty  traffic  of  twenty  States,  suggest  the  heavy  pulsations 
of  a  nation's  vigorous  life.  As  his  wife  enlarged  and  gave 
beautiful  proportions  to  the  home-nest,  so  he  mixed  his  practi 
cal  and  scientific  farmer  brains  with  the  soil  he  set  out  to  mas 
ter.  A  wetanduncultivable  field  between  the  '•  ridge"  and  the 
railroad  was  scientifically  drained  and  made  capable  of  big 
corn  crops  ;  a  hydraulic  ram  was  put  in  the  low  land  near  the 


224  THE   LIFE    OF   GEN.   JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

ridge,  which  received  and  was  worked  by  the  copious  and 
pure  spring  water  from  the  gravelly  ridge,  and  made  to  send  a 
constant  and  abundant  supply  for  house  and  out-houses,  for 
people  and  for  their  dumb  servants.  A  workshop,  a  tool- 
shop,  a  root-house,  improved  agricultural  machinery,  and  the 
other  outfits  of  a  good  farm  were  added.  And  in  all  the  farm 
work  the  master  easily  took  the  lead,  working  with  a  will  and 
until  tired  nature  brought  the  solid  rest  that  is  not  given  to 
brain  toilers.  By  this  sort  of  actual  companionship  with  Na 
ture  he  lias  recuperated  from  the  prodigious  overwork  of  legis 
lation  and  politics,  got  renewed  strength,  and  preserved  his  old 
simplicity  of  tastes.  He  has  got  a  more  valuable  crop  out  of 
that  farm  than  is  harvested  from  the  largest  of  the  famous 
Minnesota  wheat  domains,  that  rival  principalities  in  size  and 
value. 

Two  quite  different  opportunities  of  seeing  Garfield  in  his 
relations  with  his  fellows,  outside  of  politics,  were  afforded 
during  my  visit.  The  first  was  the  Fourth  of  July  celebration 
at  Painesville  whose  peculiar  interest  drew  out  the  largest  and 
best  attendance  of  "  Western  Reserve1'  people  ever  known  in 
that  handsome  town,  for  there  was  to  be  witnessed  the  formal 
dedication  of  a  noble  "  Soldiers'  Monument,"  in  the  park-like 
"Public  Square,"  which  had  been  many  years  in  course  of 
completion,  and  then  everybody  wanted  to  see  and  hear  their  own 
long-trusted  and  beloved  representative,  as  of  old,  before  the 
nation  claimed  him.  There  was  a  long  and  interesting  proces 
sion,  and  there  were  several  good  speeches.  Ex-Governor  Cox, 
the  main  orator,  was  scholarly  and  eloquent,  of  course  ;  the  Hon. 
A.  G.  Riddle  recalled,  by  his  off-hand  short  speech,  the  mem 
ories  of  old-time  irresistible  pleas  before  "Western  Reserve" 
juries,  and  Tribune  correspondent  E.  V.  Smalley,  as  one  of  the 
first  company  of  Painesville  volunteers,  warmed  up  into  a  most 
effective  style  of  reminiscence.  But  no  one  had  a  fair  chance 
of  securing  the  full  attention  of  the  thousands  of  intelligent 
and  earnest  people  who  swarmed  around  the  speakers'  stand 
and  "oack  out  of  ear-shot,  save  the  pride  and  glory  of  the  "  dis- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEH.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD.  225 

trict,"  Garfield.  And,  moving  around  the  crowd  that  hung 
breathlessly  on  every  glowing  and  thrilling  utterance  of  the 
"  citizen-soldier,"  I  could  see  how  the  "  old  Western  "Reserve11 
"  rises  at"  Garfield  and  holds  him  in  its  heart  of  hearts,  as 
greater  than  Giddings,  yet  unspoiled  by  success  and  unconscious 
of  the  fulness  of  his  powers. 

"  The  Fourth"  came  on  the  third,  at  enterprising  Painesville. 
The  next  day,  Sunday,  afforded  a  totally  different  experience. 
I  was  asked  to  go  to  the  "  Disciples"  meeting-house,  about  a 
mile  toward  Painesville,  and  attend  the  worship  there,  and  went, 
as  did  pretty  nearly  all  the  Garfield  family.  The  meeting 
house  is  a  small,  old-fashioned  rural  New  England  sort  of 
temple,  built  of  boards  and  painted  white,  with  commodious 
horse-sheds  around.  The  attendance  was  not  large,  but  of  peo 
ple  who  looked  earnestly  religious,  in  their  plain  and  primitive 
way.  There  was  no  "preacher,"  in  the  usual  sense  of  that 
word.  But  in  the  preacher's  seat  was  General  Garfield's  prac 
tical,  original  and  independent  old  friend  and  adviser,  one  of 
the  most  noted  characters  in  the  "Reserve,"  Dr.  J.  P.  Robi- 
son,  who,  when  young  Garfield  first  seriously  contemplated  the 
task  of  getting  a  college  education,  carefully  examined  the 
brawny  and  brainy  youth,  at  the  latter's  request,  and  told  him 
that  he  "had  the  brain  of  a  Webster,"  and  lung  power  and 
muscle  to  support  it.  In  his  younger  career  the  doctor  was  a 
famous  and  successful  lay  preacher,  but  with  his  large  and 
varied  business  and  farm  interests,  and  advanced  years,  he  con 
fines  his  public  exhortations  to  his  own  neighborhood  church. 
His  discourse  was  a  plain  and  pungent  and  sometimes  sarcastic 
and  humorous  attack  on  all  human  substitutes  for,  and  addi 
tions  to,  the  revealed  word  of  God.  He  classed  the  complex 
modern  "theologies"  with  the  "mythologies"  of  old,  and, 
while  admitting  the  value  of  a  thorough  theological  training, 
could  not  help  alluding  to  the  learned  doctors  of  divinity 
whose  preaching  yielded  few  converts,  while  "Paul  stole  out 
of  jail,  converted  a  whole  family,  and  got  back  so  quickly  that 
fie  was  not  missed."  I  confess  that  the  plain  and  powerful  talk 


226  THE   LIFE   OF   GEX.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELTX 

of  this  vigorous  old  man,  whose  grip  on  worldly  realities  and 
business  is  remarkable,  and  who  seemed  so  equally  sure  of  the 
"  eternal  verities'1  of  the  Gospel,  with  his  unconsciously  splen 
did  contempt  for  any  human  assumptions  of  divine  authority, 
gave  me  an  impression  not  at  all  unfavorable  to  the  "  Dis 
ciples'1  persuasion.  After  the  preaching  was  over  he  asked 
the  congregation  to  "  sing  a  song,"  and  proceeded,  with  the  aid 
of  two  deacons,  to  administer  the  "  Lord's  Supper,"  as  is  done 
every  Sunday  by  the  "  Disciples."  The  ceremony  was  impress 
ive  by  its  very  simplicity  and  evident  sincerity.  After  the 
broken  bread  had  been  blessed  and  partaken  of,  the  doctor 
asked  "  Brother  Garficld  "  to  ask  a  blessing  on  the  wine,  and 
the  latter  did  so,  with  the  manner  of  one  who  was  per 
forming  a  simple  and  customary  duty.  Altogether  the  services 
were  exceedingly  suggestive  of  the  apostolic  times  and  of  the 
notion  that  much  might  be  learned  from  the  misunderstood  and 
humble  "  Campbellites."  They  gave  me  a  much  clearer  con 
ception  of  the  natural  and  normal  character  of  Garfield's 
"preaching,'1  in  his  early  manhood,  and  for  this  reason  had 
special  value  and  significance.  And  it  seemed  to  me  that  when 
a  man  so  brilliantly  successful  in  politics  is  so  endeared  to  all 
his  old  neighbors,  and  moves  them  so  deeply,  one  day,  by 
his  thrilling  expressions  of  eulogy  for  the  dead  heroes  of  the 
war  in  which  he  freely  exposed  his  own  life,  and  the  next  day, 
among  those  with  whom  he  has  long  worshipped  in  simplicity, 
is  an  earnest  and  devotional  leader,  he  has  a  largeness  and 
wholeness  of  nature  and  life  that  inevitably  draw  to  him  the 
best  sentiments  of  the  people  who  know  him  best. 

(Garfleld  to  P.  A.  Iftrisdale.) 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  February  14,  1875. 

I  don't  remember  whether  I  have  ever  called  your  attention  to  a  book  which 
has  given  me  a  great  deal  of  pleasure,  and  which  I  think  it=  an  ndmirnble  help 
to  young  people  in  laying  the  foundation  of  a  knowledge  of  Shakeppeare  You 
may  be  familiar  with  it,  but  i  never  saw  it  until  this  winter.  It  is  Shakespeare 
written  in  a  condensed  and  attractive  form,  by  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb,  and 
published  in  Bohn's  Library.  It  gives  but  eighteen  pages  to  each  play,  and  puts 
the  st<>ry  In  oo  plain  a  way  that  a  very  young  child  can  understand  it.  The  vol 
ume  contains  sketches  of  about  half  of  the  plays.  About  twice  a  week  I  read 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEX.  JAMES   A.   GAIiFIELD.  227 

one  of  these  stories  to  the  children,  and  even  Mollie  gets  a  pretty  fair  nndcr- 
standinr  of  the  story.  Not  only  Dhis.  but  they  give  other  and  much  clearer 
notions  of  the  plot  of  the  play  than  the  reading  of  the  whole  play  ordinarily 
gives. 

(Garfield  to  B.  A.  ffiiudale.) 

MENTOR,  OHIO,  May  13,  1877. 

Yon  can  hardly  imagine  how  completely  I  have  turned  my  mind  out  of  its 
usual  channels  during  the  last  four  weeks.  You  know  J  have  never  been  iible  to 
do  anyihing  moderately,  and,  to-day,  I  feel  myself  lame  in  every  muscle  with 
too  much  lifting  and  digging.  J  shall  try  to  do  a  little  less  the  coming  week. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

CONCLUSION. 

LET  us,  in  conclusion,  consider  a  few  of  the  remarkable  fea 
tures  of  Garfield 's  character  and  public  career. 

In  the  first  place,  his  career  may  be  said  to  be,  perhaps,  the 
most  remarkable  illustration  of  the  developing  power  of  our 
institutions  that  was  ever  afforded.  Exception  to  this  might  be 
taken  as  regards  two  instances  :  first,  that  of  Franklin  ;  but 
Franklin  accomplished  by  far  the  most  important  achievements 
of  his  life  after  he  had  passed  the  age  of  fifty,  which,  Garfield 
has  not  yet  reached  ;  second,  that  of  Lincoln,  who  is  consid 
ered  by  many  profound  thinkers  to  have  been  the  greatest  man 
ever  begotten  on  this  continent  ;  but  Lincoln  was  one  of  those 
rare  natures  which  seem  to  be  peculiarly  inspired  for  great  emer 
gencies  ;  and  although  he  rose  from  the  lowest  origin,  through 
a  life  of  comparative  poverty  and  great  toil,  to  the  highest  hon 
ors  of  the  Republic,  yet  his  greatness  seems  to  have  been  more 
a  special  gift  of  Heaven  than  the  result  of  the  steady  develop 
ment,  improvement,  and  culture  of  a  great  brain. 

The  stories  about  the  toils  and  privations  endured  by  Garfield 
in  his  boyhood  and  early  manhood  will  deservedly  endear  him 
to  the  popular  heart,  for  the  lesson  they  afford  is  one  full  of 
cheer  and  inspiration  to  the  millions  of  young  Americans  whose 
circumstances  compel  them  to  meet  like  hindrances  to  culture 
and  development.  But  it  is  quite  possible  that  too  much  may 
be  made  of  these  popular  illustrations,  which  tend  to  divert 
from  consideration  the  fact  that  from  the  age  of  seventeen  until 
he  graduated  from  Williams  the  determination,  energy,  inflex 
ible  purpose,  and  lofty  resolves  of  young  Garfield  were  concen 
trated  on  higher  objects  than  those  which  command  the  ambi 
tion  of  most  of  that  arge  class  of  men  who  are  known  as  u  self- 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEK.  JAMES   A.  GARFIE/D.  229 

made  men,1'  and  whose  successes  are  purely  selfish  in  their 
character.  Garfield's  spirit  and  whole  life  during  this  heroic 
period  of  struggle  were  of  a  totally  different  sort  from  those 
which  have  been  displayed  by  men  who  have  sprung  from  pov 
erty  and  obscurity  into  a  wealth  or  political  power  that  was 
made  the  ultimate  end  of  life.  He  pursued  culture  and  knowl 
edge  for  the  sake  of  developing  the  powers  he  felt  within  him 
— largely  for  the  sake  of  culture,  but  also  in  order  to  enable  him 
to  fulfil,  in  some  worthy  sphere  of  usefulness,  the  highest  func 
tions  of  his  nature,  and  to  exercise  the  widest  scope  of  his 
powers.  In  all  human  probability,  he  has  been,  since  the  age 
of  seventeen,  the  "  growingest"  specimen  of  human  nature 
under  process  of  development  in  this  country.  Whoever  will 
undertake  faithfully  to  go  through  the  various  evidences  and 
products  of  his  activity  for  a  little  over  a  generation  will  fully 
coincide  with  this  propONhion.  No  subject  of  human  interest 
has  been  foreign  to  the  stajrchings,  sympathies,  and  thinking  of 
this  athletic  student.  An  American  of  Americans,  he  has  ab 
sorbed,  in  the  generous  juices  of  his  soul,  all  the  elements  of 
knowledge,  culture,  faith,  and  aspiration  which  come  most 
definitely  within  the  broad  domain  of  American  history,  pat 
riotism,  philosophy,  and  forecast.  Living  near  the  shore  of  one 
of  the  chain  of  lakes  that  constitute  our  Mediterranean,  and 
in  a  region  central  to  the  better  settled  parts  of  the  Union,  his 
sympathies  have  been  as  broad  as  the  continent  ;  his  consum 
ing  love  of  nationality  has  been  that  of  a  man  who  desires, 
not  to  extend  the  power  of  the  nation  over  any  portion  of  it  as 
a  despotism,  but  that  every  portion  shall  equally  and  to  the 
fullest  extent  enjoy  all  the  privileges  and  advantages  of  the 
National  Government  which  he  believes  the  fathers  established 
44  to  promote  the  general  welfare. " 

As  to  Garfield's  political  career,  there  are  many  points  of  sin 
gularity.  It  has  been  seldom  in  the  history  of  this  country  that 
a  young  man  elected  to  the  House  of  Representatives  has  main 
tained  himself  in  the  confidence  and  affections  of  tiis  constitu 
ents  to  such  a  remarkable  degree.  Elected  nine  successive 


230  THE   LIFE   OF   GEtf.  JAMES   A.   GARFIELD. 

times,  with  such  growing  popularity,  especially  during  the  last 
three  campaigns,  that  lie  could  have  been  re-elected  again  and 
again,  to  all  human  appearance,  as  long  as  he  chose  to  remain 
in  the  House— ho  has  maintained  this  length  and  eminence  of 
public  service  without  having  had  to  depend  on  the  methods 
by  which  other  statesmen  have  continued  for  long  periods  in 
one  or  the  other  branch  of  Congress.  To  illustrate  :  The  early 
founders  of  the  Republican  Party  who  served  in  Congress  for 
long  periods  won  their  popular  strength  mainly  by  the  zeal, 
ardor  and  constancy  with  which  they  devoted  themselves  to 
the  one  idea  which  was  the  animating:  purpose  of  the  Republi 
can  Party  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  war.  After  the  war  be 
gan,  most  of  these  men  continued  their  hold  upon  the  public 
confidence  and  that  of  their  constituencies  by  continuing  their 
old  war  cries.  Other  members  of  Congress  who  have  served 
several  terms  have  been  able  to  do  so  by  the  support  of  large 
financial  or  other  interests,  which  they  have  made  it  their  pecul- 
iar  mission  to  aid.  Still  others  have  achieved  the  same  sort  of 
success  by  their  adroitness,  care,  skill,  tact  or  boldness  in 
manipulating  caucuses  and  managing  conventions.  From  all 
these  public  men,  many  of  them  worthy  and  useful  statesmen^ 
Garficld  has  been  widely  differentiated.  He  has  had  no  special 
hobby  in  Congress,  but  has  impartially  and  energetically  devot 
ed  himself  to  the  advocacy  of  wThat  he  has  regarded  as  the  right 
side  of  every  great  and  living  issue  that  has  been  presented 
since  he  entered  that  body.  His  speeches  have  been  as  remark 
able  for  the  great  scope  of  subjects  which  they  embraced  as  was 
the  course  of  studies  which  he  pursued  in  obtaining  the  knowl 
edge  and  culture  that  were  to  be  the  main  elements  of  his 
success. 

There  has  been  a  steady  crescendo  in  his  career  which  impresses 
every  one  who  realizes  its  peculiar  nature,  with  the  conviction 
that  it  cannot  be  thwarted  or  arrested  in  its  development. 
There  have  been  plenty  of  heroic  and  romantic  incidents  in  it, 
and  a  wealth  of  varied  honors,  but  each  successive  step  has 
seemed  so  natural  to  so  strong  a  will  and  to  so  stalwart  and  un- 


THE  LIFE   OF  GEN.  JAMES   A.  GARFIELD.  231 

ceasingly  and  variously  active  a  brain,  that  it  is  taken  as  a  mat 
ter  ol  course.  It  is  what  would  be  "  the  unexpected  "  to  must 
men  that  has  been  "  happening"  to  him  pretty  much  all  his 
life.  That  the  poor  canal  boy  should  become  a  college  Presi 
dent  was  romance  enough  for  one  career.  That  the  college 
President  should  be  spontaneously  chosen  a  State  Senator  aud 
become  a  leader  in  critical  times  was  a  fresh  marvel.  That  the 
preaching  and  legislating  college  President  should  jump  from 
his  chosen  avocations  into  the  new  business  of  fighting  and  be 
gin  military  life  as  acting  Brigadier-General,  win  the  title  by  a 
series  of  rapid  and  brilliant  operations,  become  Chief  of  Stall 
of  a  large  army  by  another  jump  and  win  a  Major-General's 
commission  by  pure  moral  and  intellectual  courage  and  power, 
was  something  to  which  the  history  of  our  great  war  offers  no 
parallel.  That  the  youngest  member  of  Congress,  coming  from 
the  army  in  mid-war  times  should  be  the  first  to  give  the  best 
energies  of  his  nature  to  a  determined  grapple  with  questions 
of  finance  and  lay  the  foundations  of  the  most  consistent  and 
fruitful  career  in  the  development  of  sound  theory  and  wise 
practice  in  dealing  with  problems  of  taxation,  tariff  and  cur 
rency,  was.  again,  enough  to  distinguish  any  public  man.  And 
so  we  might  go  on,  carving  out  of  the  achievements  and  successes 
of  Garfield  material  enough  to  answer  for  several  distinct  and 
distinguished  careers  and  biographies. 

All  of  which  unconsciously  led  him  to,  and  prepared  him  for, 
the  unsought,  unplanned  triumph  at  Chicago,  which  was  not 
only  the  most  wonderful  event  in  all  political  history,  but  the 
most  perfect  instance  of  the  resistless  strength  of  a  man  devel 
oped  by  all  the  best  and  purest  impulses,  forces,  and  influences 
of  American  institutions  into  becoming  their  most  thorough  and 
ablest  embodiment,  in  organic  and  personal  activity,  aspira 
tions,  and  character.  The  finest  feature  of  the  English  form  of 
government,  the  virtual  crowning  of  victorious  leadership,  was 
reproduced  in  the  Convention  of  the  party  that  has  wielded  the 
greatest  powers  for  twenty  years,  and  has  learned  how  to  gov 
ern  as  no  other  party  ever  did  learn.  The  whole  history  of 


THE   LIFE   OF   GEN.  JAMES   A.  GAKFIELD. 


GarfielcTs  relations  with  the  Convention,  which  he  entered  as 
the  sincere  and  single-minded  friend  of  Sherman,  is  full  of  sig 
nificance.  Day  after  day  it  became  unconsciously  more  and 
more  convinced  that  the  nominator,  and  not  one  of  the  dis 
tinguished  nominees,  was  the  man  of  the  hour,  for  the  time,  for 
the  official  leadership  of  the  party  whose  existence  was  exactly 
coeval  with  the  political  activity  of  Garfield,  and  whose  rank 
and  file  he  had  most  fully  represented  on  every  field  of  conflict. 
When  the  party  crowned  with  its  highest  honors  the  most  per 
fect  type  of  American  development,  by  American  processes, 
methods  and  institutions,  it  gained  a  fresh  lease  of  life  and 
power  by  recognizing  the  solid  foundations  of  our  institutions 
and  became  the  most  genuine  Democracy,  as  well  as  the  wisest, 
ever  organized  anywhere.  There  is  not  a  nobly  ambitious  poor 
boy  in  the  land  who  should  not  feel  that  Garfield's  election 
would  be  the  pledge  of  another  century  of  unlimited  openings 
and  chances  for  youth  of  like  poverty  and  hard  fortune.  And 
so  long  as  poor  American  boys  may  feel  that  the  highest  of 
earthly  offices  is  attainable  by  such  methods  as  Garfield  has  fol 
lowed,  so  long  the  boldest  of  all  experiments  in  government 
will  continue  to  baffle  all  the  evil  predictions  of  its  enemies, 
and  to  surpass  in  its  beneficence  the  most  glowing  dreams  of 
its  friends.  J.  M.  BUNDY. 


PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD. 

ON  the  second  of  November,  1880,  James  A.  Garfield  was 
elected  President  of  the  United  States.  For  two  months  pre 
ceding  the  election,  the  country  was  full  of  popular  excite 
ment  which  violent  partisan  strife  is  wont  to  awaken.  The 
worst  instance  of  partisanship  was  an  attempt  to  defeat  the 
Republican  candidate  by  the  use  of  a  letter  purporting  to  have  been 
written  at  a  recent  date  by  General  Garfield  to  an  obscure  person 
in  Lynn,  Mass.,  on  the  subject  of  Chinese  cheap  labor.  General 
Garfield  immediately  branded  the  letter  as  a  miserable  forgery,  and 
his  friends  proceeded  to  "  hunt  the  rascal "  down  who  concocted  it. 
But  so  wide  had  been  the  distribution  of  the  letter  through  the  press 
and  by  circular,  and  so  clever  was  the  forgery,  that  much  damage 
to  the  Republican  cause  was  done  before  any  remedy  could  be 
applied.  General  Garfield  rose  easily  above  this  and  all  calum 
nies,  and  the  victory  of  the  party  was  complete. 

The  inauguration  took  place  in  the  presence  of  a  great  and 
enthusiastic  multitude.  One  of  the  homely  incidents  of  the 
occasion  was  the  hearty  kiss  with  which,  before  the  people,  the 
President  received  the  congratulations  and  salutations  of  his  aged 
mother  and  devoted  wife.  Mrs.  Garfield  is  the  first  mother  who 
has  had  the  honor  of  witnessing  the  Inauguration  of  her  son. 
She  little  suspected  the  tragedy  so  soon  to  be  enacted. 

This  public  mark  of  honest  love  for  those  whose  happiness  he 
had  cherished  through  life  was  so  unconventional  as  to  be  worthy 
of  record  if  only  as  an  exhibition  of  the  true  Republican  simplicity 
of  the  new  occupants  of  the  White  House. 

Soon  after  the  Inauguration  the  question  of  civil  appoint 
ments  arose  and  the  whole  subject  of  Civil  Service  reform  was 
laid  open.  The  first  serious  break  in  the  Republican  ranks 


234  THE   LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT   GARFIELD. 

occurred  over  the  appointment  of  Collector  for  the  Port  of  New 
York.  The  President's  choice  fell  to  State  Senator  Wm.  H. 
Robertson.  Senator  Roscoe  Conkling  of  New  York  opposed  the 
appointment  of  Robertson  on  personal  grounds,  and  demanded 
that  the  President  should  observe  the  courtesy  usual  in  such 
cases  and  withdraw  the  nomination.  Because  the  President  did 
not  withdraw  the  nomination  for  reasons  sufficient  to  himself  and 
his  Cabinet,  the  two  New  York  Senators,  Conkliiig  and  Platt,  sent 
in  their  resignations  to  the  President  of  the  Senate  and  to  the 
Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

Immediately  upon  their  withdrawal,  the  Senate  confirmed 
Senator  Robertson,  and  after  the  transaction  of  other  business  of 
minor  importance  adjourned.  The  great  Empire  State  was  now, 
through  the  foolish  pique  of  its  senior  Senator,  without  a  repre 
sentative  in  the  United  States  Senate.  A  contest  at  once  began 
in  the  New  York  Legislature.  The  question  was  whether 
Conkling  and  Platt  should  be  re-elected  and  their  course  thus 
vindicated,  or  new  members  sent  in  their  stead.  The  discussion 
which  ensued  was  so  protracted  and  so  bitter  as  to  disgust  sober- 
minded  people  throughout  the  nation.  Meantime  the  President 
established  himself  and  his  family  at  Elberon,  N.  J.,  for  summer 
rest,  and  quiet.  It  was  on  Saturday,  July  2,  1881,  when  he  was 
about  to  rejoin  his  wife  for  a  brief  tour  in  New  England  that  he 
was  shot  by  Charles  Guiteau  in  the  Washington  depot  of  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  The  full  and  graphic  account  of 
the  deed  and  the  wonderful  effect  produced  on  the  country  and 
the  world  is  taken  in  the  following  extracts  from  contemporary 
newspapers.  At  this  moment  he  became 

THE    NATION'S    HERO. 

The  appalling  intelligence  came  from  Washington  that  President  Garfield  was 
assassinated  and  was  dead.  Later  dispatches,  however,  modified  this  startling 
news  by  the  announcement  that  the  President,  while  dangerously  wounded,  was 
still  living,  and  that  there  was  a  slight  hope  of  his  recovery. 

Briefly  told,  the  story  of  the  tragedy  is  as  follows:  President  Garfield  and  Sec 
retary  Blaine  drove  from  the  Executive  Mansion,  about  9  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
to  the  depot  of  the  Baltimore  and  Potemac  Railroad,  where  the  President  was  to 


THE   LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT   GARFIELD.  235 

join  other  members  of  his  Cabinet  and  proceed  on  a  trip  to  New  York  and  New 
England.  As  he  was  walking  through  the  passenger-rooms,  arm  in  arm  with 
Mr.  Elaine,  two  pistol  shots  were  fired  in  quick  succession  from  behind,  and  the 
President  sank  to  the  floor,  bleeding  profusely.  The  assassin  was  instantly 
seized,  and  proved  to  be  Charles  J.  Guiteau,  a  pettifogging  lawyer,  who  had  been 
an  unsuccessful  applicant  for  office  under  the  Government,  and  who  had  led  a 
precarious  existence  in  several  of  the  large  cities  of  the  country. 

The  wounded  President  was  conveyed  to  the  offices  of  the  railroad  on  the 
second  floor  of  the  depot  building.  Several  physicians  were  soon  in  attendance, 
and  after  an  hour  had  elapsed  it  was  decided  to  remove  him  to  the  Executive 
Mansion,  where  he  was  made  as  comfortable  as  possible.  His  mind  remained 
perfectly  clear  all  day,  notwithstanding  the  desperate  nature  of  his  injuries,  and 
when  his  wife,  who  had  been  summoned  from  Long  Branch,  arrived  at  his  bed 
side,  he  was  able  to  converse  with  and  encourage  her. 

During  the  afternoon  the  physicians  expressed  little  hope  of  the  President's 
recovery,  but  late  in  the  evening  their  bulletins  were  more  favorable. 

*  *  *  Before  leaving  the  depot  the  President  manifested  some  anxiety 
about  the  effect  of  the  intelligence  of  his  wound  upon  Mrs.  Garfield,  and,  turning 
to  Colonel  Rockwell,  dictated  to  him  the  following  dispatch  to  be  sent  to  Mrs. 
Garfield  at  Long  Branch: 

Mrs.  Garjteld,  Elberon,  N.  J.  : 

The  President  wishes  me  to  say  to  you  from  him  that  he  has  been  seriously 
hurt— how  seriously  he  cannot  yet  say.  He  is  himself,  and  hopes  you  will  come 
to  him  soon.  He  sends  his  love  to  you. 

A.  F.  ROCKWELL. 

******** 
The  following  letter  was  taken  from  the  prisoner's  pocket  at  police  headquar 
ters,  showing  conclusively  his  intention  to  kill  the  President: 

JULY  2, 1881. 
To  the  White  House: 

The  President's  tragic  death  was  a  sad  necessity,  but  it  will  unite  the  Repub 
lican  Party  and  save  the  Republic.  Life  is  a  flimsy  dream,  and  it  matters  little 
when  one  goes.  A  human  life  is  of  small  value.  During  the  war  thousands  of 
brave  boys  went  down  without  a  tear.  I  presume  the  President  was  a  Christian 
and  that  he  will  be  happier  in  Paradise  than  here.  It  will  be  no  worse  for  Mrs. 
Garfield.  dear  soul,  to  part  with  her  husband  this  way  than  by  natural  death. 
He  is  liable  to  go  at  any  time  any  way.  I  had  no  ill-will  toward  the  President. 
His  death  was  a  political  necessity.  I  am  a  lawyer,  a  theologian,  and  a  poli 
tician.  J  am  a  Stalwart  of  the  Stalwarts.  I  was  with  Gen  Grant  and  the  rest  of 
our  men  in  New  York  during  the  canvass.  I  have  some  papers  for  the  press, 
which  I  shall  leave  with  Byron  Andrews  and  his  co  journalists  at  No.  1,420  New 
York  avenue,  where  the  reporters  can  see  them.  I  am  going  to  the  jail. 

CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

Mr.  Andrews,  to  whom  allusion  is  made  in  the  foregoing  letter,  was  the  Wash 
ington  correspondent  of  the  Chicago  Inter-  Ocean.  Upon  learning  of  the  shoot 
ing,  and  the  allusion  made  to  him  in  the  prisoner's  papers,  Mr.  Andrews  repaired 
to  police  headquarters  and  made  a  sworn  statement  to  the  effect  that  he  never 
heard  of  nor  met  Guiteau  until  he  saw  him  under  arrest  to-day.  The  prisoner's 
statement,  addressed  to  Mr.  Andrews,  was  retained  by  the  police  authorities. 
Among  the  papers  was  the  following  letter  to  Gen.  Sherman : 


236  THE   LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT   GARFIELD. 

To  Gen.  Sherman : 

I  have  just  shot  the  President.  I  shot  him  several  times,  as  I  wished  him  to 
go  as  easily  as  possible.  His  death  was  a  political  necessity.  I  am  a  lawyer,  a 
theologian,  and  politician.  I  am  a  Stalwart  of  the  Stalwarts.  I  was  with  Gen. 
Grant  and  the  rest  of  our  men  in  New  York  during  the  canvass.  I  am  going  to 
jail.  Please  order  out  your  troops  and  take  possession  of  the  jail  at  once. 

CHAKLES  GUITEAU. 

The  following  address  was  upon  the  letter :  "  Please  deliver  at  once  to  Gen. 
Sherman  or  his  first  assistant  in  charge  of  the  War  Department." 

The  following  announcement  was  made  at  2  A.  M.,  July  3,  by  the  President's 
physician:  "The  improvement  in  the  President's  condition,  which  began  be 
tween  8  and  9  o'clock  to-night,  has  steadily  continued,  and  his  respiration  and 
temperature  are  now,  at  2  o'clock,  normal.  His  pulse  has  further  fallen  to  120." 

The  President  continued  to  improve  and  rested  comfortably.  The  feeling  at 
the  White  House  has  now  changed  from  despondency  to  buoyant  hope.  Doctor 
Bliss  stated  that,  while  the  patient's  condition  was  yet  very  critical,  he  enter 
tained  some  hope  that  he  might  pull  through.  The  chances,  however,  were  still 
against  him.  He  relied  upon  the  President's  strong  constitution  to  assist  him 
materially.  The  President  maintained  the  same  composure  and  self-possession 
that  characterized  him  all  day.  His  demeanor  was  something  remarkable.  He 
was  by  far  the  lightest-hearted  person  in  the  White  House.  To  Dr.  Bliss,  upon 
being  informed  that  he  had  one  chance  of  life,  and  only  one,  he  laughingly 
replied :  "  We  will  take  that  one  chance,  Doctor,  and  make  good  use  of  it."  Mrs. 
Garfield  behaved  admirably.  She  displayed  a  strength  of  character  wholly  unex 
pected  by  everybody.  She  exercised  a  self-control  that  elicited  the  encomiums 
of  all  by  whom  she  was  surrounded.  After  her  private  interview  with  her  hus 
band,  she  summoned  Dr.  Bliss  to  a  private  apartment,  and  there  had  a  confer 
ence  of  half  an  hour  with  him.  At  the  very  start,  she  told  him  that  she  wished 
to  hear  nothing  but  the  truth  respecting  her  husband's  condition;  that  she  was 
prepared  for  the  worst,  and  knowing  that  the  inevitable  must  occur,  she,  like  the 
President,  was  prepared  in  a  Christian  spirit  to  submit  to  the  will  of  God,  and 
bear  whatever  might  occur  with  all  the  fortitude  and  resignation  at  her  com 
mand.  Dr.  Bliss  then  detailed  the  President's  symptoms,  and  entered  into  a  full 
history  of  the  case  from  the  moment  the  President  came  under  his  treatment, 
which  was  within  10  minutes  of  the  shooting.  Mrs.  Garfield  listened  calmly. 
There  was  not  a  tear  in  her  eye.  In  speaking  of  her  conduct  during  the  inter 
view,  Dr.  Bliss  enthusiastically  said:  "If  there  ever  was  a  true  heroine,  Mrs. 
Garfield  has  proved  herself  one  of  the  noblest,  in  romance  or  reality." 

Secretary  Elaine  left  the  White  House  at  a  late  hour,  quite  overcome  after  the 
terrible  events  of  the  day.  He  said  if  the  nearest  member  of  his  family  had  been 
stricken  down  he  could  not  have  been  more  shocked.  "I  have  known  Gen. 
Garfield  for  19  years.  We  have  been  as  close  and  intimate  in  our  social  relations 
as  any  two  men  could  have  been.  We  drove  down  to  the  depot  together.  I 
never  sawhim  more  hilarious.  Leaving  all  personal  considerations  out  of  the 
question,  I  believe  that  Gen.  Garfleld's  death  at  this  juncture  will  be  a  public 
calamity.  From  what  the  doctors  tell  me,  I  now  hope  for  the  best." 


THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT   GARFIELD.  237 

DETAILS  OF  THE  CRIME. 

United  States  District  Attorney  Corkhill,  of  Washington,  furnished  the  fol- 
Jowing  statement  for  publication : 

The  interest  felt  by  the  public  in  the  details  of  the  assassination,  and  the 
many  stories  published,  justify  me  in  stating  that  the  following  is  a  correct  and 
accurate  statement  concerning  the  points  to  which  reference  is  made : 

The  assassin,  Charles  Guiteau,  came  to  Washington  City  on  Sunday  evening, 
March  6,  and  stopped  at  the  Ebbitt  House,  remaining  only  one  day.  He  then 
secured  a  room  in  another  part  of  the  city,  and  has  boarded  and  roomed  at  vari- 
cms  places,  the  full  details  of  which  I  have.  On  Wednesday,  May  IS,  the  assas^ 
sin  determined  to  murder  the  President.  He  had  neither  money  nor  pistol  at 
the  time.  About  the  last  of  May  he  went  into  O'Meara's  store,  comer  of  Fif 
teenth  and  F  streets,  in  this  city,  and  examined  some  pistols,  asking  for  the 
largest  caliber.  He  was  shown  two  similar  in  caliber  and  only  different  in  the 
price.  On  Wednesday,  June  8,  he  purchased  the  pistol  which  he  used,  for  which 
he  paid  $10,  Having  in  the  meantime  borrowed  $15  of  a  gentleman  in  this  city  on 
the  plea  that  he  wanted  to  pay  his  board  bill.  On  the  same  evening,  about  7 
o'clock,  he  took  the  pistol  and  went  to  the  foot  of  Seventeenth  street  and  prac 
ticed  firing  at,  a  board,  firing  ten  shots.  He  then  returned  to  his  boarding-house 
and  wiped  the  pistol  dry  and  wrapped  it  in  his  coat  and  waited  his  opportunity. 

On  Sunday  morning,  June  12,  he  was  sitting  in  Lafayette  park  and  saw  the 
President  leave  for  the  Christian  church,  on  Vermont  avenue,  and  he  at  once 
returned  to  his  room,  obtained  his  pistol,  put  it  in  his  hip  pocket,  and  followed 
the  President  to  church.  He  entered  the  church,  but  found  that  he  could  not 
kill  him  there  without  danger  of  killing  some  one  else.  He  noticed  that  the 
President  sat  near  a  window.  After  church  he  made  an  examination  of  the  win 
dow  and  found  he  could  reach  it  without  any  trouble,  and  that  from  this  point 
he  could  shoot  the  President  through  the  head  without  killing  any  one  else.  The 
following  Wednesday  he  went  to  the  church,  examined  the  location  and  the 
window,  and  became  satisfied  he  could  accomplish  his  purpose,  and  he  deter 
mined  therefore  to  make  the  attempt  at  the  church  on  the  following  Sunday. 
He  learned  from  the  papers  that  the  President  would  leave  the  city  on  Saturday, 
June  18,  with  Mrs.  Garfield  for  Long  Branch.  He  therefore  determined  to  meet 
him  at  the  depot.  He  left  his  boarding  place  about  5  o'clock  on  Saturday  morn 
ing,  June  18,  and  went  down  to  the  river  at  the  foot  of  Seventeenth  street  and 
fired  five  shots  to  practice  his  aim  and  be  certain  his  pistol  was  in  good  ord3r. 
i  He  then  went  to  the  depot,  and  was  in  the  ladies'  waiting-room  of  the  depot 
'  with  the  pistol  ready  when  the  President's  party  entered.  He  says  Mrs.  Garfield 
looked  so  weak  and  frail  that  he  had  not  the  heart  to  shoot  the  President  in  her 
presence,  and  as  he  knew  he  would  have  another  opportunity  he  left  the  depot. 
He  had  previously  engaged  a  carriage  to  tnke  him  to  the  jail.  On  Wednesday 
evening  the  President  and  his  son,  and,  I  think,  United  States  Marshal  Henry, 
went  out  for  a  ride.  The  assassin  took  his  pistol  and  followed  them,  and  watched 
them  for  some  time  in  hopes  the  carriage  would  stop  ;  but  no  opportunity  was 
given.  On  Friday  evening,  July  1,  he  was  sitting  on  the  seat  in  the  park  oppo 
site  the  White  House,  when  he  saw  the  President  come  out  alone.  He  followed 


238  THE  LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT   GARFIELD. 

him  down  the  avenue  to  Fifteenth  street,  and  then  kept  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  street  up  Fifteenth  street  uutil  the  President  entered  the  residence  of  Secre 
tary  Elaine.  He  watched  at  the  corner  of  Mr.  Morton's  late  residence,  on  the 
corner  of  Fifteenth  and  H  streets,  for  some  time,  and  then,  afraid  he  would  at 
tract  attention,  he  went  into  the  alley  in  the  rear  of  Mr.  Morton's  residence,  ex 
amined  his  pistol  and  waited.  The  President  and  Secretary  Blaine  came  out 
together,  and  he  followed  them  over  to  the  gate  of  the  White  House,  but  could 
get  no  opportunity  to  use  his  weapon. 

On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  July  2,  he  breakfasted  at  the  Riggs  House  about 
7  o'clock.  He  then  walked  up  into  the  park  and  sat  there  for  an  hour.  He  then 
took  a  one-horse  avenue  car  and  rode  to  Sixth  street ;  got  out  and  went  into  the 
depot  and  loitered  around  there ;  had  his  shoes  blacked,  engaged  a  hackman  for 
$2  to  take  him  to  the  jail,  went  into  the  water-closet  and  took  his  pistol  out  ol 
his  hip  pocket  and  unwrapped  the  paper  from  around  it,  which  he  had  put  there 
for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  perspiration  from  the  body  dampening  the 
powder  ;  examined  the  pistol  carefully,  tried  the  trigger,  and  then  returned  and 
took  a  seat  in  the  ladies'  waiting-room,  and  as  soon  as  the  President  entered 
advanced  behind  him  and  fired  two  shots. 

These  facts,  I  think,  can  be  relied  upon  as  accurate,  and  I  give  them  to  the 
public  to  contradict  certain  false  rumors  in  connection  with  the  most  atrocious 
of  atrocious  crimes. 

AT   THE    PRESIDENT'S    HOME. 

The  news  from  Mentor  was  :  Mentor  is  stunned.  Its  people  are  paralyzed. 
They  have  shut  themselves  in  their  homes.  Never  has  such  a  blow  been  received. 
* 'Lincoln's  death  we  felt  to  bo  more  especially  a  national  loss,11  said  a  white- 
haired  farmer,  the  tears  coursing  their  way  down  his  cheek.  "  In  this  we  see 
not  only  a  loss  t '  this  Nation,  but  they  have  taken  our  friend,  our  brother,  they 
have  violated  the  sanctity  of  our  hearth-stones."  The  news  was  received  at  11 
A.  ar.,  bnt  was  not  credited.  When  substantiated  it  spread  like  wildfire,  and 
from  all  parts  of  the  surrounding  country  farmers  hurried  to  Mentor.  The  news 
that  President  Garfidd  had  been  fatally  shot  was  brought  to  the  home  by  Dr. 
Robe?on,  his  old  and  life-long  friend,  about  10 : 30  A.  M.  It  was  not  believed, 
and  it  was  not  until  other  telegrams  were  received  that  the  merrbers  of  the 
family  of  Mr.  Rudolph,  Mrs.  Garfield's  father,  could  be  made  to  give  credence  to 
the  news.  When  the  President's  condition  no  longer  admitted  of  doubt,  old  Mr. 
Rudolph,  who  had  tried  to  hide  his  emotion  and  anxiety,  completely  broke  down 
and  cried  like  a  child.  His  son  and  daughter-in-law  were  also  very  much 
affected. 

As  the  news  became  more  generally  known  neighbors  and  friends  came  to 
the  home  anxiously  inquiring  for  additional  news,  and  showing  by  every  human 
manifestation  their  deep  and  heartfelt  sorrow.  At  noon  Irwin  and  Abram  Gar- 
fie'd.  two  son*,  respectively  1 1  and  9  years  old.  arrived  from  the  E?ipt,  and  when 
tte  correspondent  reached  the  home  of  the  President  they  were  playing  about 
the  lawn  in  happy  ignorance  of  the  terrible  news  concerning  their  father.  "  We 
have  not  paid  a  word  to  them,'1  said  Mr.  Rudolph.  "  because  we  hoped  that  it 
may  not  be  true,  and  now  that  it  is  true  we  almost  fear  to  tell  them." 


THE  LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT   GARFIELD.  239 

MR.    GLADSTONE   WRITES    TO   MRS.    GARFIELD. 

Secretary  Elaine  received  from  Minister  Lowell  at  London  the  following  note 
written  to  Mrs.  Garfield  by  Mr  Gladstone : 

LONDON,  July  21,  1881. 

Dear  Madam  :  Yon  will,  I  am  sure,  excuse  me,  though  a  personal  stranger, 
for  a  (dressing;  you  by  letter  to  convey  to  you  the  assurances  of  my  own  feelings 
and  those  of  my  countrymen  on  the  occasion  of  the  late  horrible  attempt  to 
murder  the  President  of  the  United  States— in  a  form  more  palpable,  at  least, 
than  that,  of  messages  conveyed  by  telegraph.  Those  feelings  have  been  feelings 
in  the  first  instance  of  sympathy  and  afterward  of  joy  and  thankfulness  almost 
comparable,  and  I  venture  to  say  only  second,  to  the  strong  emotions  of  the 
great  Nation  of  which  he  is  the  appointed  head.  Individually  I  have,  let  me  beg 

Sau  to  believe,  had  my  full  share  in  the  sentiments  which  have  possessed  the 
ritish  Nation.  They  have  been  prompted  and  quickened  largely  by  what  I  ven 
ture  to  think  is  the  ever  growing  sense  of  harmony  and  mutual  respect  and  affec 
tion  bet  .veen  the  two  countries  and  of  a  relationship  which  from  year  to  year 
becomes  more  and  more  a  practical  bond  of  union  between  us,  but  they  have  "also 
drawn  much  of  their  strength  from  a  cordial  admiration  of  the  simple  heroism 
which  has  marked  the  personal  conduct  of  the  President,  for  we  have  not  yet  wholly 
lost  the  capacity  of  appreciating  such  an  example  of  Christian  faith  and  manly  for 
titude.  This  ex  -mplary  picture  hits  been  mnde  complete  by  your  own  contribu 
tion  to  its  noble  and  touching  features,  on  which  I  only  forbear  to  dwell  because 
I  am  directly  addressing  you.  I  beg  to  have  my  respectlul  compliment?  and  con 
gratulations  conveyed  to  the  President,  and  to  remain,  cear  madam,  with  great 
esteem,  your  most  faithful  servant,  WILLIAM  E.  GLADSTONE. 

In  reply  to  this  Secretary  Elaine  telegraphed  as  follows  : 

WASHINGTON,  July  22, 1881. 
LOWELL,  Minister,  London. 

I  have  laid  before  Mrs.  Garfield  the  note  of  Mr  Gladstone.  I  am  requested  by 
her  to  say  that  among  the  many  thousand  manifestations  of  interest  and  ex 
pressions  of  sympathy  which  have  reached  her  none  has  more  deeplv  touched 
her  h  -a-'t  than  ;ha  kind  words  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  His  own  solicitude  and  con 
dolence  are  received  with  gratitude.  But  far  beyond  this  she  recognizes  that 
Mr.  Glads'one  rightfully  s'.ieiks  for  the  people  of  the  British  Isles,  whose 
sympathy  in  this  National  an  1  personal  affliction  has  been  as  quick  and  sincere 
as  that  of  her  own  countrymen.  Her  chief  pleasura  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  cordial 
letter  i-  found  in  the  comfort  whi  h  it  brings  to  her  husband.  The  President  is 
cheered  and  solace  1  on  his  painful  and  weary  way  to  health  by  the  many  messages 
of  sympathy  which  in  his  returning  strength  he  safely  receives  and  most  grate 
fully  appreciates.  ELAINE,  Secretary. 

COMMENT    ON    THE    ASSASSINATION. 
(From  New  York  Times,  July  8, 1881.) 

In  the  crime  which  was  committed  at  Washington  yesterday  there  is  the  very 
irony  of  fate.  Considering  his  origin  and  the  circumstances  of  his  youth,  no 
man  has  parsed  a  career  more  remarkable  or  attained  a  dignity  more  striking 
than  that  of  President  Garfield.  Beginning  life  the  son  of  an  almost  penniless 
widow,  forced  to  struggle  as  few  men  must  for  the  bare  maintenance  of  an 
equality  with  his  fellow-men,  he  has  risen  step  by  step  to  one  of  the  most  honor 
able  positions  offered  by  the  government  of  any  nation.  It  was  his  fortune  to 
fall  upon  a  time  when  great,  opportunities  awaited  great  qualities,  and  to  all 
occasions  he  presented  qualities  not  unworthy  of  them.  He  entered  manhood 


240  THE  LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT   GARFIELD. 

as  the  political  contest  with  slavery  approached  its  crisis,  and  he  threw  all  the 
energies  of  a  strong  nature  on  the  side  of  freedom.  From  the  field  of  discussion 
and  the  ballot  the  conflict  with  slavery  was  taken  to  the  field  of  war,  and  without 
hesitation,  with  absolute  devotion,  with  a  courage  which  knew  no  fear,  he 
entered  on  this  new  and  terrible  task.  In  all  the  tests  of  fitness  for  the  citizen 
ship  of  a  free  Republic  to  which  he  was  subjected  he  won  high  distinction,  until 
at  last  his  country  called  him  to  the  greatest  office  within  its  gift.  And  this 
President,  to  whom  Americans  had  pointed  proudly  and  justly  as  a  splendid 
example  of  what  our  country  and  its  cherished  principles  wore  able  to  do  for 
manhood— simple  manhood,  unfavored  of  fortune  and  unaided  by  any  inheritance 
of  title  or  precedence— is  shot  down  without  a  moment's  warning  by  an  assassin 
whose  hatred  was  directed  not  to  the  man  but  to  the  President. 

The  whole  country  is  bowed  with  deep  grief  and  indignation  at  this  event. 
It  is«inevitable  that  it  should  be.  There  are  few  men  who  enjoy,  and  none  who 
deserve  to  enjoy,  the  name  of  American  citizen  to  whom  this  crime  does  not 
bring  a  sense  of  personal  sorrow  and  a  profound  feeling  of  patriotic  humiliation. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  criticisms  which  they  have  passed  upon  the  Presi 
dent,  all  American  citizens  must  feel  the  "  deep  damnation  "  of  this  attempted 
"  taking  off ."  He  was  an  obscure  son  of  the  Republic  who  had  brought  to  its 
most  distinguished  post  gifts  of  mind  and  character  which  conferred  credit  on 
the  office,  and  almost  at  the  outset  of  his  term  his  life  is  assailed  by  a  wretch 
who  represents  as  distinctly  the  evil  in  our  system  as  President  Garfield  repre 
sents  the  good.  For,  though  the  murderer  was  obviously  of  disordered  mind,  it 
is  impossible  to  ignore  the  causes  which  led  immediately  to  this  act— which 
directed  his  ill-regulated  will  to  its  final  aim.  He  was  a  disappointed  office- 
seeker,  and  he  linked  the  bitterness  of  his  personal  disappointment  with  the 
passionate  animosity  of  a  faction.  His  resentment  was  inflamed  and  intensified 
by  the  assaults  upon  the  President  which  have  been  common  in  too  many  circles 
for  the  past  few  months.  Certainly,  we  are  far  from  holding  any  party  or  any 
section  of  a  party  responsible  for  this  murderous  act,  but  we  believe  it  our  duty 
to  point  out  that  the  act  was  an  exaggerated  expresssion  of  a  sentiment  of  narrow 
and  bitter  hatred  which  has  been  only  two  freely  indulged.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say,  in  the  first  place,  that  if  Mr.  Garfield  had  not  been  the  chief  of  a  service 
in  which  offices  are  held  out  as  prizes  to  men  of  much  the  same  merit  and  much 
the  same  career  as  this  murderer  he  would  not  have  been  exposed  to  this  attack. 
And  while  this  is  beyond  dispute,  it  is  also  probable  that  the  murderer's  mad 
spite  would  not  have  been  "  screwed  to  the  sticking  point "  if  it  had  not  been 
stirred  by  the  license  that  has  prevailed  in  certain  quarters  with  reference  to  the 
President.  The  event,  therefore,  is  one  which  may  and  ought  to  convey  a  lesson, 
which  should  teach  us  the  folly  and  the  wrong  of  the  insane  pursuit  of  office 
which  our  methods  of  public  employment  invite,  which  should  show  us  the 
danger  and  disgrace  of  the  unbridled  political  passion  aroused  by  these  methods. 
In  a  certain  sense  the  act  of  Guitcau  was  an  accident,  for  it  was  entirely  out  of 
the  range  of  any  ordinary  motives,  but  it  is  not  inexplicable  ;  it  is  clearly  of 
those  accidents  which  bring  more  vividly  to  the  mind  the  forces  that  create 
them. 


THE  LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT   GARFIELD.  241 

GEN.    GRANT    AND    GUITEATL 

Gen.  Grant  was  entertaining  Commodore  Garrison  and  several  other  distin 
guished  guests  when  a  correspondent  called  on  him  last  evening.  He  excused 
himself  to  his  company,  and  courteously  granted  the  following  interview  : 

"  I  have  just  recalled  to  my  mind,"  he  said,  "  the  fact  that  I  once  knew  this 
man  who  is  said  to  have  done  the  dastardly  deed  which  has  so  shocked  the 
Nation.  My  son,  Col.  Fred.  Grant,  had  become  acquainted  with  him  in  Chicago. 
While  I  was  at  the  Fifth-Avenue  Hotel,  just,  after  the  close  of  the  Hayes  campaign, 
this  man  Guiteau  stopped  there,  too.  He  said  he  was  in  expectation  of  marrying  a 
rich  lady,  worth  somewhere,  as  I  recollect,  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  million  of 
dollars.  He  would  be  in  position,  therefore,  to  support  the  dignity  of  the 
United  States  Government  at  a  foreign  court,  and  he  desired  to  be  appointed 
Minister  to  Austria.  He  expected  to  have  bis  application  for  the  appointment 
indorsed  by  myself,  among  others.  He  thought  he  had  claims  on  the  Administra 
tion  because  he  had  made  speeches  during  the  campaign,  and  he  had  allowed 
himself  to  run  away  with  the  notion  that  his  services  had  been  of  vital  impor 
tance  to  the  Republican  Party.  He  sent  his  card  frequently  to  my  room  with  a 
request  for  an  interview,  but  I  refused  to  receive  him.  My  son  had  described  him 
to  me  as  an  unreliable  bore,  and  had  cautioned  me  to  have  nothing  to  do  with 
him,  and  my  refusal  to  see  him  was  as  much  because  of  what  my  son  knew  of 
him  as  because  of  my  own  impression  against  him.  He  forced  himself  into  my 
room,  however,  one  evening,  in  the  rudest  possible  way.  He  first  sent  the  col 
ored  porter  to  my  room  with  his  card,  and  when  the  porter  had  returned  with  my 
answer  that  I  would  not  see  him,  another  tap  was  heard  at  the  door.  I  supposed 
that  it  was  a  messenger  with  another  card,  and  bade  the  man  at  the  door  to  '  come 
in.'  To  my  surprise  this  man  marched  in.  Placing  on  my  table  his  petition  for 
the  appointment  he  desired,  he  said  that  he  wanted  me  to  sign  it.  I  refused 
peremptorily,  possibly  rudely,  to  do  it,  and  he  quitted  the  room." 

"Now,  General,  as  to  your  view  of  the  calamity  that  has  befallen  the  Nation." 

"  I  am  so  staggered  by  the  occurrence,"  replied  the  General,  "  that  I  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  any  view.  It  is  only  another  proof  that  there  are  at 
large  persons  in  the  community  who  are  liable  at  any  moment  to  allow  them 
selves  to  become  possessed  of  the  idea  that  their  mission  is  to  redress  some 
fancied  public  wrong  by  sacrificing  a  life.  They  are  thought  to  be  brainless  until 
they  startle  the  community  with  some  such  terrible  crime  as  this." 

GEN.    GARFIELD'S   FATALISM. 

Those  who  are  most  familiar  with  Gen  Garfield  say  that  for  many  years  he 
cherished  the  belief  that  he  would  not  live  to  be  older  than  his  father  was,  and 
that  he  would  die  in  some  sudden  and  violent  manner.  His  friends,  with  all 
their  persuasion,  were  not  able  to  make  him  dismiss  this  though!.  He  would 
say,  in  answer  to  their  claims  that  such  a  belief  was  foolish  :  "It  seems  to  me 
as  foolish  as  it  does  to  you.  I  do  not  know  why  it  haunts  me.  Indeed,  it  is  a 
thing  that  is  wholly  involuntary  on  my  part,  and  when  I  try  the  hardest  not  to 
think  of  it  it  haunts  me  most.  It  comes  to  me  sometimes  in  the  night,  when  all 


242  THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT   GARFIELD. 

is  quiet.  I  think  of  my  father  and  how  he  died  in  the  strength  of  his  manhood 
and  left  my  mother  to  care  for  a  large  family  of  children,  and  how  I  have  always 
been  without  his  assistance  and  advice,  and  then  I  feel  it  so  strong  upon  me 
that  the  vision  is  in  the  form  of  a  warning  that  I  cannot  treat  lightly."  For 
many  years  he  believed  that  he  should  some  time  fall  between  cars  or  be  killed 
in  some  way  while  traveling.  When  he  reached  the  age  of  his  father  at  death 
aud  passed  that  point  rifely,  he  seemed  to  forget  the  idea  that  had  given  him  so 
much  trouble.  He  is  now  49,  nearly  five  years  older  than  his  father  when  he 
died.  Ic  is  said  by  those  who  knew  the  General  best  th;.  he  was  ever  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree  a  believer  in  fatalism.  He  was  a  man  who  invariably  h::d 
the  strongest,  impressions,  and  it  is  believed  that  it  was  an  impression  that  pre 
vailed  with  him  for  many  years  that  he  would  be  President  some  time.  He  never 
sought  the  office  and  never  intended  to  do  so.  The  Times1  correspondent  well 
remembers  to  have  heard  him  discuss  the  very  matter  at  dinner.  He  said: 
"The  American  people  are  very  much  like  one  giant  human  being.  The  com 
bined  intellect  generally  acts  like  the  intellect  of  a  single  man  when  it  gets 
ready  to  act.  When  the  giant  wants  any  man  whom  he  has  chosen  to  work  for 
him,  he  knows  just  how  to  let  him  know  it.  If  a  man  offers  his  services,  the 
giant  very  often  rejects  them.  It  is  like  a  maiden  asking  a  man  to  marry  her. 
No  woman  is  so  handsome  and  witty  arid  accomplished  that  she  can  afford  to 
do  this.  Ten  chances  in  the  dozen,  the  man  will  say,  if  not  to  the  woman  her-, 
self,  at  least  to  himself,  'I  was  about  to  ask  you,  but  I  think  you  are  just  a  little 
too  willing  ;  I  believe  I'd  rather  not.'  The  American  people  like  to  discover  a 
man.  Then  they  can  claim  him  as  their  own  by  an  old  and  established  usage. 
They  will  discover  him  sooner  or  later,  if  there  is  anything  in  him  worth  discov 
ering.  I  have  more  confidence  in  the  judgment  of  the  united  intellect  of  the 
American  people  than  in  anything  else  in  the  world.  Great  men  and  orators 
may  move  and  modify  it,  and  knaves  and  charlatans  may  pervert  it,  but,  sooner 
or  later,  the  true  conclusion  will  be  reached,  and  right  and  justice  will 
triumph." 


The  result  hoped  for  by  the  assassin  in  removing  the  President 
as  an  obstacle  to  the  purposes  of  the  section  of  the  Republican 
party  known  as  "  Stalwart"  was  defeated  by  the  hand  of  Provi 
dence.  The  friends  of  the  President  succeeded  in  electing 
Elbridge  G.  Lapham  and  Warner  Miller,  to  take  the  place  of  the 
New  York  Senators  who  bad  resigned,  and  the  power  and  name 
of  '•  Stalwart  "  were  relegated  among  the  things  of  the  past.  But 
the  great  blessings  which  flowed  from  that  wound  were  far-reach 
ing.  People.  North  and  South,  East  and  West,  of  every  shade 
of  political  opinion  and  religious  belief  were  united,  as  if  by 


THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT   GARFIELD.  243 

magic,  in  an  overwhelming  flood  of  sympathy  for  the  fallen  hero, 
and  detestation  for  the  crazy  fiend  who  shot  him.  The  political 
necessity  which  Guiteau  sought  to  satisfy  was  promoted  far  more 
widely  and  surely  than  he  dreamed.  Besides  rewelding  Repub 
licans,  he  succeeded  in  uniting  Democrats  with  Republicans  and 
making  this  again  one  country  in  all  essential  points.  The 
earnest  prayers  of  good  people  ascended  constantly  to  the  throne 
of  Grace  that  their  heroic  President  might  live.  From  the  day 
after  the  shooting  hope  revived  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and 
the  nation's  Patient  grew  siowly  and  steadily  stronger.  Daily 
bulletins  as  to  the  state  of  his  pulse,  temperature  and  respiration 
were  as  eagerly  watched  in  every  home,  grand  and  lowly,  as 
though  he  were  the  dearest  member  of  the  household.  Surely 
"  Tb  KOLVOV  ofodetj'  "  a  common  interest  binds  "  the  hearts  of  the 
people  to-day. 


"  SEPTEMBER    19,    1881." 


The  President  made  a  noble  struggle  for  life.  The  Nation 
prayed  in  concert  that  he  might  live.  But  God  willed  that  he 
should  die.  On  the  nineteenth  of  September  at  thirty-five  min 
utes  past  ten,  his  soul  passed  quietly  but  suddenly  from  the 
midst  of  his  anxious  weary  watchers  into  eternity. 

Again  we  quote  from  the  ever  watchful,  ever  faithful  daily 
press,  whose  reports  on  the  succeeding  day  were  draped  in  black, 
and  whose  voice  of  mourning  went  sobbing  through  the  land. 

THE    LONG    SUFFERING    ENDED. 

President  Garfield  is  dead.  His  death  was  unexpected,  no  previous  condi 
tions  having  given  warning  of  immediate  dissolution.  The  Cabinet  had  with 
drawn  last  night,  and  the  physicians  had  retired.  A  severe  pain  in  the  heart 
was  followed  almost  immediately  hy  death,  which  took  place  at  10:35  p.  M. 

In  the  morning  he  was  attacked  by  a  severe  chill  which  greatly  weakened 
Mm.  Toward  noon,  however,  he  rallied,  and  throughout  the  afternoon  he 


244  THE   LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT  GAKtflELD. 

rested  and  slept.  During  the  day  he  called  for  a  looking-glass,  and  having 
gazed  into  it,  observed  that  it  was  strange  that  he  could  look  so  bright  and  be 
BO  weak. 

Shortly  before  10  o'clock  last  night  Dr.  Bliss  asked  the  President  if  he  felt 
uncomfortable  anywhere,  and  he  answered  "  Not  at  all."  The  President  then 
fell  as-leep,  and  Dr.  Bliss  withdrew.  About  fifteen  minutes  after  10  o'clock  the 
President  p  aced  his  hand  near  his  heart  and  said  he  was  suffering  great  pain. 
Dr.  Bliss  returned  immediately  and  found  the  President  unconscious.  The 
pulse  and  the  action  of  the  heart  were  almost  imperceptible.  Dr.  Bliss  said  that 
the  President  was  dying.  The  President  remained  in  a  dying  condition  for 
about  twenty  minutes,  when  life  was  declared  to  be  extinct. 

The  sad  news  of  the  President's  death  spread  rapidly  throughout  the  country, 
and  caused  a  profound  sensation.  Bella  were  tolled,  and  preparations  were 
made  to  drape  the  public  buildings. 

The  public  horror  is  portrayed  in  these  lines : 

A  wasp  flew  out  upon  our  fairest  son, 

And  stung  him  to  the  quick  with  poisoned  shaft, 

The  while  he  chatted  carelessly  and  laughed, 

And  knew  not  of  the  fatelul  mischief  done. 

And  so  this  life,  amid  our  love  begun, 

Envenomed  by  the  insect's  hellish  craft, 

Was  drank  by  Death  in  one  long  feverish  draught, 

And  he  was  lost — our  precious,  priceless  one  ! 

Oh,  mystery  of  blind,  remorseless  fate  ! 

Oh,  cruel  end  of  a  most  causeless  hate  I 

That  life  so  mean  should  murder  life  so  great  I 

What  is  there  left  to  us  who  think  and  feel, 

Who  have  no  remedy,  and  no  appeal, 

But  damn  the  wasp  and  crush  him  under  heel  ? 

J.  G.  HOLLAND. 

This  the  sad  story:  Late  in  August,  despair  dispelled  hope. 
On  the  seventh  of  September,  the  physicians  concluded  to 
make  a  final  effort  to  save  him.  All  other  means  having  tailed, 
and  hope  being  abandoned,  they  decided  to  try  what  change 
of  air  would  accomplish  for  the  patient  sufferer.  It  seemed  to 
the  President  as  though  it  hardly  paid  to  continue  the  struggle, 
but  so  great  was  his  love  for  his  country  and  those  around  him 
that  he  decided  to  try  again. 

For  a  few  days  he  rallied  by  the  supreme  effort  of  his  will,  and 
encouraging  bulletins  were  sent  forth  to  the  world.  With 
marvellous  celerity  tracks  were  laid  from  the  White  House  to  the 
depot,  and  from  the  Elberon,  New  Jersey,  depot  to  the  cottage  of 


THE   LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


245 


Mr.  Chas.  P.  Francklyn,  whither  he  was  to  be  taken.  The  history 
of  his  removal  and  the  tears  of  sympathy  and  yearning  devotion 
and  love  towards  th^  sick  man  that  were  exhibited  along  the 
route  by  rich  and  poor,  merchant  and  laborer,  will  ever  remain 
fresh  and  green  in  the  memory  of  the  time. 

But,  alas,  ''before  noon  on  Saturday,  September  17,  a  severe 
chill  set  in,  lasting  for  fully  half  an  hour.  Slight  evidences  of  a 
chill  had  been  discovered  the  preceding  night,  but  the  physicians 
had  been  able  to  keep  it  under  control.  The  attack  of  the  chills 
•was  followed  later  by  profuse  perspiration  end  high  fever.  To 
ward  night  the  patient  felt  slightly  relieved.  In  the  evening  of 
the  following  day,  Sunday,  September  18,  a  chill  lasting  for 
fifteen  minutes  excited  the  gravest  apprehensions  among  the 
President's  attendants.  The  patient  suffered  severely  from  its 
effects.  Though  the  patient  felt  relieved  a  few  hours  later,  the 
physicians  were  of  the  opinion  that  the  situation  was  very 
critical."  The  fatal  stroke  could  not  be  stayed,  and  the  brave 
sufferer  succumbed  on  the  nineteenth. 


As  a  record  of  the  flickering  of  the  caudle  of  life  in  our  beloved 
President  from  the  first  to  the  last  we  quote  the  following  table  : 


PULSE. 

TEMPERATURE. 

RESPIRATION. 

DATE. 

A.  M. 

M. 

P.  M. 

A.  M. 

M. 

P.  M. 

A.  M. 

M. 

P.  M. 

July     3 

120 

100 

20 

July     4 

108 

iio 

126 

'9^4  !  100 

101.9 

i9 

24 

24 

July     5 

114 

110 

106 

100.5     101 

100.9 

24 

24 

24 

July     6 

98 

100 

104 

98.9 

99.7 

100.6 

23 

23 

23 

July     7 

94 

100 

106 

99.1 

100.8 

100.2 

23 

23 

23 

July     8 

96 

108 

103 

99.2 

101.4 

101.3 

23 

24 

24 

July     9 

100 

104 

108 

99.4 

1G1.2 

101.9 

24 

22 

24 

July   10 

106 

102 

108 

100 

100.5 

101.9 

23 

22 

24 

July   11 

98 

106 

108 

99.2 

99.8 

102.8 

22 

24 

24 

July    12 

96 

100 

104 

99.6 

100.8 

108.4 

22 

24 

24 

July   13 

90 

94 

100 

98.5 

100.6 

101.6 

20 

22 

24 

July   14 

90 

94 

98 

99.8 

98.5 

101 

22 

22 

23 

July   15 

90 

94 

98 

98.5 

98.5 

100.4 

18 

18 

20 

July   16 

90 

94 

98 

98.5 

98.4 

100.2 

18 

18 

19 

July   17 

90 

94 

98 

98.4 

98.5 

100.2 

18 

18 

20 

July    18 

88 

98 

102 

98.4 

98.5 

100.7 

18 

18 

21 

July   19 

90 

92 

96 

98.5 

98.5 

99.8 

18 

19 

19 

246 


THE   LIFE   OF  PRESIDENT   GAKFIELD. 


DATE. 

PULSE. 

TEMPERATURE. 

RESPIRATION. 

July  23 

80 

93 

93 

98.4 

93.4 

93.6 

18 

18 

19 

July   fcl 

83 

98 

96 

93.4 

95.4 

99.9 

18 

19 

19 

Juy  22 

83 

82 

93 

98.4 

98.4 

100.2 

17 

18 

19 

Juy  23 

92 

125 

118 

97.4 

104 

101.7 

19 

26 

25 

July  24 

98 

118 

104 

93.4 

99.8 

99.2 

18 

24 

23 

July  23 

96 

104 

110 

98.4 

93.4 

1,1.8 

18 

20 

24 

July  23 

1C2 

106 

104 

93.4 

93.4 

100.7 

18 

19 

22 

July  27 

94 

90 

93 

93.4 

98.4 

93.5 

18 

18 

20 

July  28 

92 

94 

104 

98  4 

98.5 

103.5 

18 

18 

20 

July  29 

92 

93 

93 

98.4 

98.4 

100 

18 

19 

23 

July   33 

92 

93 

104 

93.5 

93.3 

100 

18 

23 

20 

July  31 

94 

103 

134 

98.4 

93.5 

90 

18 

19 

20 

Aug.     1 

94 

103 

134 

93.4 

93.4 

99.5 

18 

19 

20 

Aug.     2 

94 

99 

U4 

93.4 

93.4 

103 

IS 

19 

20 

Aug.     3 

9(5 

100 

102 

93.4 

98.4 

99.  4 

18 

19 

19 

Aug.     4 

90 

96 

132 

98.4 

93.4 

100.2 

18 

18 

19 

Aug.    5 

88 

93 

102 

98.4 

9.3.4 

100.4 

18 

18 

19 

Au>.     6 

92 

100 

102 

93.4 

93.  5 

101.8 

18 

19 

19 

Aig     7 

93 

134 

134 

93.7 

100 

101.2 

18 

23 

20 

A'i|.    8 

94 

134 

108 

93.4 

100.2 

101.9 

18 

20 

19 

Aug.     9 

98 

104 

13  3 

99.8 

99.7 

101.9 

19 

19 

19 

Au,'.  13 

134 

110 

103 

98.5 

93.6 

101 

19 

19 

19 

A:ig.  11 

130 

132 

103 

93.6 

98.6 

-101-2 

19 

19 

19 

Au,'.  12 

10  J 

1JO 

108 

93.6 

99.3 

101.2 

19 

19 

19 

Aug.  13 

104 

102 

104 

133.8 

99.2 

103.7 

19 

18 

19 

An,'.  14 

130 

96 

108 

99.8 

93.3 

1-30-8 

18 

18 

19 

Aug.  15 

103 

118 

UO 

10).  2 

99 

99.6 

20 

19 

22 

Aug.  16 

110 

114 

120 

93.6 

98  3 

98.9  I 

18 

18 

10 

Aug.   17 

110 

112 

112 

93.3 

88.7 

98.8 

18 

18 

18 

Aug.  18 

104 

108 

108 

93  8 

93  4     100 

17 

18 

18 

Aug.  19 

100 

106 

106 

98.4 

98.8 

100 

17 

17 

18 

An?.  23 

98 

107 

110 

93.4 

98.4 

100.4 

18 

18 

19 

Aug.   21 

106 

108 

108 

93.8 

99.4       99.2 

18 

18 

18 

Aug.  22 

104 

104 

110 

98.4 

98.  4  !  103.1  '• 

18 

18 

19 

Aug.   2J 

100 

104 

104 

93  4 

98.9 

93.2 

18 

13 

19 

Aug.  24 

100 

104 

108 

98.5 

99.2 

100.7 

17     j     17 

19 

Aug    25 

106 

113 

112 

98  5 

Si).  2 

99.8 

18        19 

13 

Aug.  26 

108 

118 

116 

99.1 

100 

99.9  ' 

17 

18 

13 

Aug.  27 

120 

120 

114 

98.4 

99.6 

98.9 

22 

22 

22 

Aug.  23 

100 

104 

113 

93.4 

99  5 

99.7 

17 

13 

SO 

Aug.  29 

100 

106 

110 

93.5 

93.6 

100.5 

17 

18 

13 

Aug.  33 

102 

116 

109 

93.5 

98.0 

99.5 

18 

ia 

13 

Aug.  31 

100 

95 

109 

98.4 

93.4 

98.6 

18 

17 

18 

Sjpt.    1 

100 

108 

103 

98.4 

93.6 

99.4 

17 

18 

1! 

Sept.    2 

100 

108 

104 

93.4 

98.7 

99.2 

17 

18 

13 

Sept.    3 

104 

104 

102 

98  6 

98.4 

99.6 

18 

18 

13 

Sept.    4 

108 

106 

110 

93.  4 

93  4 

99 

18 

18 

18 

Sept.    5 

102 

114 

103 

99.5 

99.5 

99.8 

13 

18 

19 

Sept.    6 

118 

110 

124 

n.o 

18 

Sept.    7 

106 

114 

108 

93  '.4 

98^4 

101 

18 

is 

18 

Sept.    8 

101 

!)4 

103 

93.7 

98.4 

90.1 

18 

17 

18 

Sept.    9 

100 

100 

100 

985       98.4 

9S.8 

17 

17 

18 

Sept.  10 

100 

100 

I'H) 

99.4       98.5 

98.7 

18 

18 

13 

Si-pi  11 

1*4 

110 

110 

93.8 

100 

106 

19 

20 

20 

Sept.  12    j     100         100         100 

98.4 

99.2 

98.6 

18 

20 

18 

THE  LIFE   OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


247 


DATE. 

PULSE. 

TEMPERATURE. 

RESPIRATION. 

A.  M. 

M. 

P.  H. 

i 

Sept.  13 
Sept.  14 
Sept.  15 
Sept.  1(5 
Sept.  17 
Sept.  18 
Sept.  19 

100 
1'JO 
100 
104 
108 
102 
106 

100 
104 
102 
116 
12J 
llti 
104 

100 
112 

104 
104 

102 
102 
102 

99.4 
98.4 
98.4 
98.6 
99.8 
98 
98.8 

93.8 
93.8 
98.9 
99.8 
10  1 
100 
98.2 

93.4 
9:).  2 
99.2 
98.6 
98      1 
98.4 
98.4  { 

20 
19 
20 
21 
21 
18 
22 

20 
20 
21 
21 
24 
20 
20 

20 
21 

21 
22 
18 
20 

18 

ARTHUR  SWORN  IN. 

The  news  of  the  death  of  the  President  found  the  people  heart 
broken  but  ready  to  accept  the  will  of  God,  and  Vice-President 
Chester  A.  Arthur  was  immediately  sworn  into  office  at  2  o'clock 
in  the  morning  of  September  20th.  by  Chief  Justice  Brady.  Busi 
ness  was  not  interrupted  ;  the  wheels  of  the  Government  were  not 
clogged;  and  the  Nation,  like  the  family,  mourned  its  head,  but 
went  forward  to  its  work  unflinchingly  and  without  commotion. 

Thus  again  the  strength  of  American  institutions  was  tested  to 
the  point  of  snapping,  but  did  not  snap. 

Like  a  young  giant,  this  Nation  treads  among  other  nations 
erect  and  defiant.  In  manners,  customs,  laws,  and  religion,  it  is  a 
rebuke  to  the  older  nations  of  the  world.  Its  youth  and  untried 
strength  subject  it  to  universal  scepticism  and  sneers.  But 
experience  is  pouring  in  its  inexorable  logic.  Though  often 
staggered  by  the  heavy  blow  of  some  traitorous  hand,  our 
splendid  p-iant  as  often  straightens,  shakes  aloft  his  Apollo  head, 
squares  his  herculean  shoulders,  and  repels  the  assassin.  God 
grant  he  may  grow  in  wisdom  and  in  strength  I 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE   FINAL   HONORS. 

THE  railroad  tracks,  so  swiftly  and  tenderly  laid  for  the  use 
of  tlie  train  which  bore  the  dying  President  to  Elheron,  had  not 
been  taken  up.     It  was  doubtless  expected  he  could  not  live,  and 
that  the  return  journey  would  soon  be  made.     And  so  within  two 
short  weeks,  and  after  a  brief  service  at  Elberon,  the  same  special 
car,  suitably  draped,  bore  the  body  back  to  Washington.     Demon 
strations  of  sorrow  and  sympathy  were  made  all  along  the  route. 
At  the  Princeton  depot  the  students  of  the  college  were  ranged 
in  line,  and  the  track  was  strewn  with  flowers.     At  Washington 
the  body  was  placed  in  state  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol  until 
Friday  the  23rd.     The  scene  presented  there  was  in  some  respects 
the  most  remarkable  that  had  ever  been  witnessed  in  the  United 
States.     People  of  all  classes  and  conditions  pressed  side  by  side 
in  eager  procession  past  the  solemn  bier.    The  colored  population 
from  the  surrounding  country  was  present  en  masse.     A  common 
grief  obliterated  all  distinctions,  and  yet  so  quiet  and  orderly  was 
this  vast  assemblage  in  the  presence  of  a  great  and  overwhelming 
national  sorrow,  that  there  was  absolutely  no  disturbance.     One 
sentiment  of  holy  grief  impelled  and  controlled  the  multitude. 
Funeral  services,  held  at  3  o'clock  on  the  23rd,  were  very  impos 
ing.     They  were  conducted  by  the  Rev.  E.  D.  Fowler,  pastor  of 
the  Christian  Church  in  Washington,  of  which  Mr.  Garfield  w.as 
a  member.     The  body  was  removed  to  the  funeral  train,  escorted 
by  the  following  procession : 

Funeral  escort  in  column  of  march,  under  command  of  Brevet  Major-General 

R.  B.  Ayres. 
Battalion  of  District  of  Columbia  volnnteers. 

Battalion  of  marines. 

Battalion  of  foot  artillery. 

Battalion  of  light  artillery. 

Chic  procession,  under  command  of  the  Chief  Marshal,  Col.  Robert  Boyd. 


THE   LIFE  OF   PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  249 

Clergymen  in  attendance. 

Physicians  who  attended  the  late  President. 

Guard  of  honor. 

Bearers. 

HEARSE. 

B?arers. 

Guard  of  honor. 

The  officers  of  the  Army,  Navy,  and  Marine  Corps  in  the  city  and  not  on  duty 

with  the  troops  forming  the  escort,  in  full-dress  uniform,  right  in  front, 

on  either  side  of  tlie  hearse — the  Army  on  the  right  and  the  Navy 

and  Marine  Corps  on  the  left— and  compose  the  guard  of 

honor. 

Family  of  the  late  President. 

Relatives  of  the  late  President. 

Ex-Presidents  of  the  United  States 

The  President. 

The  Cabinet  Ministers. 

The  Diplomatic  Corps. 

The  Chief-Justice  and  Associate  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 

States. 

The  Senators  of  the  United  States. 

Members  of  the  United  States  House  of  Representatives. 
Governors  of  States  and  Territories,  and  Commissioners  of   the  District   of 

Columbia 
The  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Claims,  thj  Judiciary  of  the  District   of  Columbia, 

and  Judges  of  the  United  States  Courts. 
The  Assistant  Secretaries  of  State,  Treasury,  and  Interior  Departments. 

The  Assistant  Postmasters-General. 
The  Solicitor-General,  and  the  Assistant  Attorneys-General. 

Organize:!  Societies. 
Citizens  and  Strangers. 

The  funeral  train  consisted  of  three  special  Pullman  palace 
coaches,  and  a  funeral  car  with  open  sides.  The  entire  train  was 
heavily  draped.  Thus  the  mourners  and  the  body  were  borne 
solemnly  and  quietly,  amid  tolling  bells  at  every  passing,  to 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  where  the  principal  obsequies  were  held  and 
near  which  the  remains  were  interred.  The  grand  catafalque, 
with  a  canopy  on  four  arches,  was  in  readiness,  and  the  coffin  was 
again  displayed  to  a  surging  multitude  of  people,  who  wished 
thus  to  express  their  last  reverential  homage  to  the  illustrious 
Ohioian.  The  final  obsequies  were  performed  on  Monday,  Sep 
tember  26th,  at  2  o'clock,  and  were  attended  by  the  most  dis 
tinguished  men  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  without  distinc 
tion  of  party,  including  governors  of  twenty  States  with  their 


250  THE  LIFE   OF  PRESIDENT  GAKFIELD. 

staffs.  All  assembled  with  one  accord  to  pay  a  last  tribute  to  the 
integrity,  ability  and  noble  patriotism  of  their  murdered  friend 
and  chieftain. 

The  exercises  in  Monument  Square  were  begun  at  10:30  A.  M., 
and  lasted  until  noon.  The  most  affecting  incident  of  the  occasion 
was  that  when  Mother  Garfield  approached  and  for  the  first  time 
looked  upon  the  coffin.  She  had  been  at  Mentor  during  the  sick 
ness  and  death  of  her  son.  The  scene  is  thus  graphically  described 
by  an  eyewitness : 

There  was  a  rising  on  tip-toe  in  many  parts  when  the  bent  and  veiled  form  of 
Mother  Garfield  stepped  from  her  carriage,  and,  leaning  upon  the  arm  of  her 
grandson  James,  ascendeJ  the  inclined  plane  to  the  floor  of  the  catafalque, 
within  which  seats  had  been  provide:!  for  the  family  and  nearest  friends.  Mrs. 
Garfield  followed,  leaning  upon  the  arm  of  her  eldest  son.  Harry,  and  was 
followed  in  turn  by  those  of  her  intimate  friends  who  have  been  constant 
attendants  since  her  husband  was  shot.  Last  came  the  members  of  the  Cabinet, 
accompanied  by  their  wives.  When  seated  rhey  were  hidden  from  view  of  those 
upon  the  outer  platform  by  the  mass  of  intervening  floral  decorations.  A  moment 
passed,  when  Mother  Garfield  arose  and  approaching  the  coffin,  laid  her  hand  upon 
the  licl  and  stood  for  a  short  time  in  silent  prayer,  her  companions  remaining 
motionless  around  her. 

The  following  order  of  exercises  was  observed : 

GAKFTELD  OBSEQUIES. 

September  26,  1881  Cleveland. 

Services  at  Pavilion. 

The  Hon.  J.  P.  Robinson,  Presiding. 

Singing  by  the  Cleveland  Vocal  Society. 

Reading  cf  Scriptures  by  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  G.  T.  Bedell. 

Prayer  by  a  representative  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Conference  in  session  in 

Painesville. 

Singing  by  the  Cleveland  Vocal  Society. 

Address  by   th?  Rev.   I.   Errett,  of  Cincinnati. 

Prayer  and  Benediction  by  the  Rev.  Charles  S.  Pomeroy. 

Services  at  Lake  View  Cemetery. 

Remarks  by  tho  Rev.  J.  H.  Jones,  Chaplain  of  the  Forty-second  Regiment. 
Singing  by  the  Cleveland  German  vocal  societies. 

President  Garfield's  favorite  ode. 
Prayer  and  Benediction  by  President  B.  A.  Hinsdale. 

The  discourse  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Isaac  Errett,  of  Cin 
cinnati,  was  most  eloquent  and  yet  marked  by  the  clearest  and 
It  was  immediately  copied  by  nearly 


THE  LIFE   OF   PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  251 

every  newspaper  in  the  United  States,  and  perhaps  expresses  more 
nearly  the  common  sentiment  of  the  nation  than  any  of  the  dis 
courses  of  the  day.  We  herewith  give  it  in  full,  and  believe  it 
will  be  valued  by  readers  as  long  as  the  nation  continues : 

And  the  archers  shot  at  King  Josiah,  and  the  king  said  to  his  servants,  Have 
me  away,  for  I  am  sore  wounded. 

His  servants  therefore  took  him  out  of  that  chawot  and  put  him  in  the  second 
chariot  that  he  ha  I,  and  they  brought  him  to  Jerusalem,  and  he  died  and  was 
burie  I  in  one  of  the  sepulchres  of  his  lathers.  And  all  Judah.  and  Jerusalem 
mourned  for  Josiati. 

And  Jerejaiah  lamented  for  Josiah,  and  all  the  singing  men  and  singing  women 
spaka  of  Josiali  iu  their  lamentations  to  this  day,  and  made  them  an  ordinance  in 
Israel;  and,  bjhold,  they  are  written  in  the  Lamentation^. 

Now  thj  rest  of  (lie  acts  of  Josiah  and  hid  goodness  according  to  that  which, 
was  written  in  the  liw  of  the  Lord. 

And  his  d  :eds  first  and  last,  behold  they  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  kings 
of  Israel  and  Judah. 

For  behold,  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  doth  take  away  from  Jerusalem  and 
from  Ju  lau  the  stay  and  the  staff ;  the  whole  stay  of  bread,  and  the  whole  stay 
of  \v:iter. 

The  mighty  man  and  the  man  of  war,  and  the  prophet,  and  the  ancient. 

The  captain  of  iifty,and  the  honorable  man  aad  the  counsellor,  and  the  cunning 
artincjr  an  1  the  eloquent  orator. 

Tne  vo.ce  said,  Cry.     And  he  taid,  What  shall  I  cry? 

All  flesh  is  grass,  and  all  the  goodhness  thereof  is  as  the  flower  of  the  field. 

The  grass  withereth,  tne  flower  fadeth  because  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  bloweth 
upon  it-  Surely  tae  people  is  grass. 

Thj  grasd  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth,  but  the  word  of  our  God  shall  stand 
forever. 

This  is  a  time  for  mourning  that  has  no  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
Death  is  constantly  occurring  every  day  and  every  hour,  and  almost  every  minute 
some  life  expires,  and  somewhere  there  arc  broken  hearts  and  desolate  homes. 
But  we  have  learned  to  accept  the  unavoidable,  and  we  pause  a  moment  and  drop 
a  tear,  and  are  away  again  to  the  excitements  and  ambitions  of  life,  and  forget  it 
all.  Sometimes  a  life  is  called  for  that  plunges  a  large  community  in  mourning, 
and  sometimes  whole  nations  mourn  the  loss  of  a  good  king,  or  a  wise  statesman, 
or  an  eminent  sage,  or  a  great  philosopher,  or  a  philanthropist,  or  a  martyr  who 
has  laid  his  life  on  the  altar  of  truth  and  won  for  himself  an  enviable  immortality 
among  the  sons  of  men. 

But  there  was  never  a  mourning  in  all  the  world  like  unto  this  mourning.  I 
am  not  speaking  extravagantly,  for  I  am  told  that  it  is  the  result  of  calculations 
carefully  made  from  such  data  as  are  in  possession  that  certainly  not  less  than 
three  hundred  millions  of  the  human  race  share  in  the  sadness  and  the  lamenta 
tions  and  sorrow  and  mourning  that  belong  to  this  occasion  here  to-day.  It  is  a 
chill  shadow  of  a  fearful  calamity  that  has  extended  itself  into  every  home  in  all 
this  land,  and  into  every  heart,  and  that  has  projected  itself  over  vast  seas  and 
oceans  into  distant  lands,  and  awakened  Iho  sincerest  and  profoundest  sympathy 
with  us  in  thj  hearts  of  other  nations. 

It  is  worth  while,  my  friends,  to  pause  a  moment  and  ask,  Why  this  is  ?  It  is 
doubtless  attributable  iu  part  to  the  wondrous  triumphs  of  science  and  art  within 
the  present  century,  by  means  of  which  time  and  space  have  been  so  far  conquered 
that  nations  once  far  distant  and  necessarily  alienated  from  each  other  are  brought 


252  THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 

into  close  communication;  then  also  the  various  ties  of  commerce  and  of  social 
interests  and  of  religious  interests  bring  them  into  contact  of  fellowship  that  could 
not  have  been  known  in  former  times  It  is  likewise  unquestionably  partly  due 
to  the  fact  that  this  Nation  of  ours  has  grown  to  such  wondrous  might  and  power 
before  the  whole  earth  that  sympathy  with  this  Nation  and  respect  for  this  great 
power  lead  to  these  offerings  of  condolence  and  expressions  of  sympathy  and 
grief. 

Yet  all  this  will  by  no  means  account  for  this  marvellous  and  world-wide  sym 
pathy  of  which  we  are  speaking.  Yet  it  cannot  be  attributed  to  mere  intellectual 
greatness,  for  there  have  been  and  there  are  other  great  men;  and,  acknowledging 
all  that  the  most  enthusiastic  heart  could  claim  for  our  beloved  leader,  it  is  but 
fair  to  say  that  there  have  been  more  eminent  educators,  there  have  been  greater 
soldiers,  there  have  been  more  skilful  and  experienced  aud  powerful  legislators 
and  leaders  of  mighty  parties  and  political  forces.  There  is  no  one  department  in 
which  he  has  won  eminence  where  the  world  may  not  point  to  others  who 
attained  higher  and  more  intellectual  greatness.  It  might  not  be  considered  more 
righteously  here  than  in  many  other  cases,  yet  perhaps  it  is  rare  in  the  history  of 
nations  that  any  one  man  has  combined  so  much  of  excellence  in  all  those  various 
departments,  and  who,  as  an  educator  and  a  lawyer,  and  a  legislator,  and  a  soldier, 
and  a  party  chieftain  and  ruler,  done  so  well,  so  thoroughly  well,  in  all  depart 
ments  and  brought  out  such  successful  results  as  to  inspire  confidence  and  com 
mand  respect  and  approval  in  every  path  of  life  in  which  he  has  walked  and  in 
every  department  of  public  activity  which  he  has  occupied.  Yet,  I  think,  when 
we  come  to  a  proper  estimate  of  his  character,  and  seek  after  the  secret  of  this 
world-wide  sympathy  and  affection,  we  shall  find  it  rather  in  the  richness  and 
integrity  of  his  moral  nature,  and  in  that  sincerity,  and  in  that  transparent  hon 
esty,  in  that  truthfulness  that  was  the  basis  for  everything  of  greatness  to  which 
we  do  honor  to-day. 

AN  ANECDOTE  OF  HIS  YOUTH. 

I  may  state  here  what  perhaps  is  not  generally  known,  as  an  illustration  of  this. 
When  James  A.  Garficld  was  yet  a  mere  lad,  a  series  of  religious  meetings  was 
hold  in  one  of  the  towns  of  Cuyahoga  County,  by  a  minister  by  no  means  attrac 
tive  as  an  orator,  possessing  none  of  the  graces  of  an  orator,  and  marked  only  by 
entire  sincerity,  by  good  reasoning  powers,  and  by  earnestness  in  seeking  to  win 
eouls  from  sin  to  righteousness.  The  lad  Garfield  attended  these  meetings  for 
many  nights,  and  after  listening  to  the  sermons  night  after  night,  he  went  one 
day  to  the  minister,  aud  said  to  him:  "  Sir,  I  have  been  listening  to  your  preach 
ing  night  after  night,  and  I  am  fully  persuaded  that  if  these  things  yon  say  are 
true,  it  is  the  duty  and  the  highest  interest  of  every  man  of  respectability,  and 
especially  of  every  young  man,  to  accept  that  religion,  and  seek  to  be  a  man. 
But,  really,  I  don't  know  whether  this  thing  is  true  or  not.  I  can't  say  that  I  dis 
believe  it,  but  I  dare  not  say  that  I  fully  and  honestly  believe  it.  If  I  were  sure 
that  it  was  true  I  would  most  gladly  give  it  my  heart  and  my  life."  So,  after  a 
long  talk,  the  minister  preached  that  night  on  the  text,  "  What  is  Truth  ?"  and 
proceeded  to  show  that  notwithstanding  all  the  various  and  conflicting  theories 
and  opinions  in  ethical  science,  and  notwithstanding  all  the  various  and  conflict 
ing  opinions  in  the  world,  there  was  one  assured  and  eternal  alliance  for  every 
human  soul  in  Jesus  Christ :  that  every  soul  was  safe  with  Jesus  Christ;  that  He 


THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT   GARFIELD.  253 

never  would  mislead ;  that  any  young  man  giving  Him  his  hand  and  heart,  and 
walking  in  His  pathway,  would  not  go  astray,  and  that  whatever  might  be  the 
solution  of  ten  thousand  insoluble  mysteries,  at  the  end  of  all  things  the  man  who 
loved  Jesus  Christ  and  walked  after  the  footsteps  of  Jesus,  and  realized  in  spirit 
and  life  the  pure  morals  and  the  sweet  piety,  was  safe,  if  safety  there  were  in  the 
universe  of  God;  safe,  whatever  else  were  safe;  safe,  whatever  else  might  prove 
unworthj  and  perish  forever.  AnJ  young  Garfield  seized  upon  it  after  due  reflec 
tion,  and  came  forward  and  gave  his  hand  to  the  minister  in  pledge  of  his  ac 
ceptance  of  the  guidance  of  Christ  for  his  life,  and  turned  his  back  upon  the  sins 
of  the  world  forever.  The  boy  is  father  to  the  man,  and  that  pure  honesty  and 
integrity,  and  that  fearless  spirit  to  inquire,  and  that  brave  surrender  of  all  the 
charms  of  sin  to  convictions  of  duty  and  right,  went  with  him  from  that  boyhood 
throughout  his  life,  and  crowned  him  with  the  honors  that  were  so  cheerfully 
awarded  to  him  from  all  hearts  over  this  vast  laud. 

WHAT  MADE  HIM  BELOVED  BY  ALL. 

There  was  another  thing.  He  passed  all  the  conditions  of  virtuous  life  between 
the  log  cabin  in  Cuyahoga  and  the  White  House,  and  in  that  wonderfully  rich  and 
varied  experience,  moving  up  higher  to  higher,  he  has  touched  every  heart  in  all 
this  land  at  some  point  or  other,  and  he  became  the  representative  of  all  hearts 
and  lives  in  this  land  ;  not  only  the  teacher,  but  the  representative  of  all  virtues, 
for  he  knew  their  wants,  and  he  knew  their  condition,  and  he  established  legiti 
mately  the  ties  of  brotherhood  with  every  man  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  I 
take  it  that  this  vow,  lying  at  the  basis  of  his  character,  the  rock  on  which  his 
whole  life  rested,  follow  d  up  by  the  perpetual  and  enduring  industry  that  marked 
his  whole  career,  made  him  at  once  the  honest  and  the  capable  man,  who  invited 
and  received,  in  every  act  of  his  life,  the  confidence  and  trust  and  love  of  all  that 
learned  to  know  him. 

There  is  yet  one  other  thing  that  I  ought  to  mention  here.  There  was  such  an 
admirable  harmony  of  all  his  powers;  there  was  such  a  beautiful  adjustment  of 
the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  in  his  being;  there  was  such  an  equitable  dis 
tribution  of  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  forces  that  his  nature  looked  out 
every  way  to  get  at  sympathy  with  everything,  and  found  about  equal  delight  in 
all  pursuits  and  ail  studies,  so  that  he  became,  through  his  industry  and  honest 
ambition,  really  encyclopaedic.  There  was  scarcely  any  single  chord  that  you 
could  touch  to  which  he  would  not  respond  in  a  way  that  made  you  know  that  his 
hands  had  swept  it  skilfully  long  ago,  and  there  was  no  topic  you  could  bring  be 
fore  him,  there  was  no  object  that  you  could  present  to  him,  that  you  did  not 
wonder  at  the  richness  and  fullness  of  information  somehow  gathered,  for  his 
eyes  were  always  open,  and  his  heart  was  always  open,  and  his  brain  was  ever 
busy  and  equally  interested  in  everything— the  minute  and  the  vast,  the  high  and 
the  low,  in  all  classes  and  creeds  of  men. 

He  thus  gathered  up  that  immense  store  and  that  immense  variety  of  the  most 
valuable  and  practical  knowledge  that  made  him  a  man,  not  in  one  department, 
but  all  around,  everywhere  in  his  whole  beautiful  and  symmetrical  life  and  char 
acter.  But,  my  friends,  the  sclemnity  of  this  hour  forbids  any  further  investiga 
tion  in  that  line,  any  further  details  of  a  very  remarkable  life,  for  with  these  de 
tails  you  are  familiar,  or,  if  not,  they  will  come  before  you  through  various  chan 
nels  hereafter. 


254  THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


THE  LESSON  HIS  LIFE  TEACHES. 

It  is  my  duty  in  the  presence  of  the  dead,  and  iu  view  of  all  the  solemnities  that 
rest  upon  us  now,  in  a  solemn  burial  service,  to  call  your  attention  to  the  great 
lesson  taught  you,  and  by  which  we  ought  to  become  wiser,  purer,  and  better 
men.  And  I  want  to  say,  therefore,  first  of  all,  that  there  comes  a  voice  from  the 
dea.l  to  this  entire  Nation,  and  not  only  to  the  people  but  to  those  in  places  of 
trust,  to  our  legislators  and  onr  governors,  and  our  military  men,  and  our  leaders 
of  parties,  and  all  classes  and  creeds  in  the  Union.  The  great  lesson  to  which  I 
desire  to  call  your  attention  can  be  expressed  in  a  few  words:  James  A.  Garfield 
went  through  his  whole  public  life  without  surrendering  for  a  single  moment  his 
Christian  integrity,  his  moral  integrity,  or  his  love  for  the  spiritual.  Coming  into 
the  exciting  conflicts  of  political  life  with  a  nature  as  capable  as  any  of  feeling  the 
force  oi'  every  temptation;  with  temptations  to  unholy  ambition,  with  unlawful 
prizes  within  his  reach,  with  every  inducement  to  surrender  all  his  religious  faith, 
and  be  known  merely  as  a  successful  man  of  the  world,  from  first  to  last  he  has 
manfully  adhered  to  his  religious  convictions,  and  found  the  more  praise,  and 
gathers  in  his  death  all  the  pure  inspiration  of  the  hope  of  everlasting  life. 

I  am  well  aware  of  a  feeling  among  political  men,  justly  shared  in,  all  over  the 
land,  by  those  who  engage  in  political  life,  that  a  man  cannot  afford  to  be  a  poli 
tician  and  a  Christian ;  that  he  must  necessarily  forego  his  obligations  to  God 
and  be  ab  'orbed  in  the  different  measures  of  policy  that  may  be  necessary  to  ena 
ble  him  to  achieve  the  desired  result.  Now,  my  friends,  I  call  attention  to  this 
grantl  life,  as  teaching  a  lesson  altogether  invaluable.  Just  at  this  point  1  want 
you  to  look  at  that  man.  I  '"ant  you  to  think  of  him  when,  in  his  early  manhood, 
he  was  so  openly  committed  to  Christ  and  the  principles  of  the  Christian  religion 
that  he  was  frequently  found,  among  a  people  who  allow  a  large  liberty,  occupy 
ing  n  pulpit.  You  are  within  a  few  miles  of  the  spot  where  the  great  congrega 
tions  gathered,  when  he  was  yet  almost  a  boy,  just  emerging  into  manhood,  week 
after  week,  and  hung  upon  the  words  that  fell  from  his  lips  with  wonder,  admira 
tion,  and  enthusiasm. 

It  was  when  he  was  known  to  be  occupying  this  position  that  he  was  invited 
to  become  a  candidate  for  the  Ohio  State  Senate.  It  was  with  the  full  knowledge 
of  all  that  belonged  to  him,  in  his  Christian  faith  and  his  efforts  to  live  a  Christian 
life,  that  this  was  tendered  him,  and  without  any  resort  to  any  dishonorable  means 
he  was  elected  and  began  his  legislative  career. 

When  the  country  called  to  arms,  when  the  Union  was  in  danger,  and  his  great 
heart  leaped  with  enthusiasm  and  was  filled  with  holiest  desire  and  ambition  to 
render  some  service  to  his  country,  it  required  no  surrender  of  the  dignity  and 
nobleness  of  his  Christian  life  to  secure  to  him  the  honors  that  fell  upon  him  so 
thick  and  fast,  and  the  successes  that  followed  each  other  so  rapidly  as  to  make 
him  the  wonder  of  the  world,  though  he  entered  upon  that  career  wholly  unac- 
quainte  1  with  military  life,  and  could  only  win  his  way  by  the  honesty  of  his  pur 
pose  and  the  diligence  and  faithfulness  with  which  he  seized  upon  every  oppor 
tunity  to  accomplish  the  work  before  him. 

Follow  him  from  that  time  until  he  w.ns  called  from  ihe  service  in  the  field, 
and  the  people  of  his  district  ?ent  him  to  Congress,  their  hearts  gathering  about 
him  without  any  effort  on  his  part.  They  kept  him  there  as  long  as  he  would 
stay,  and  they  would  have  kept  him  there  yet  if  he  had  said  so.  He  remained 


THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  255 

there  until,  by  the  voice  of  the  people  of  this  State,  he  was  made  Senator,  when 
there  were  other  bright  and  strong  and  grand  names — men  who  were  entitled  to 
recognition  and  reward,  and  altogether  worthy,  in  every  way,  to  bear  Senatorial 
honors.  Yet  there  were  such  currents  of  admiration  and  sympathy  and  tiust  and 
love  coming  in  and  centering  from  all  parts  of  the  State  that  the  action  of  the 
Legislatui  eat  Columbus  was  but  the  echo  of  the  popular  voice  when,  by  acclama 
tion,  they  gave  him  that  place,  and  every  other  candidate  gracefully  retired. 

And  then  again  when  he  went  to  Chicago  to  serve  the  interest  of  another ; 
when,  as  I  knew,  his  own  ambition  was  fully  satis-fled,  and  he  had  received  that 
on  which  his  heart  was  set,  and  looked  with  more  than  gladness  to  a  path  in  life 
for  wnich  his  entire  education  and  culture  had  prepared  him.  When  wearied 
out  with  every  effort  to  command  a  majority  for  any  candidate,  the  hearts  of  that 
great  Convention  turned  on  every  side  to  James  A.  Garfield. 

In  spite  of  himself,  and  against  every  feeling,  wish  and  prayer  of  his  own 
heart,  this  honor  was  crowded  upon  him,  and  the  Nation  responded  with  holy 
enthusiasm  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other,  and  in  the  same  honorable  way 
he  was  elected  to  the  Chief  Magistracy  under  circumstances  which,  however 
great  the  bitterness  of  party  conflict,  caused  all  parties  not  only  to  acquiesce,  but 
to  feel  proud  in  the  consciousness  that  we  had  a  Chief  Magistrate  of  whom  they 
need  not  be  ashamed  before  the  world,  and  unto  whom  they  could  safely  confide 
the  destinies  of  this  mighty  Nation. 

Now,  gentlemen,  let  me  say  to  you  all,  those  of  you  occupying  great  places  of 
trust  who  are  here  to-day,  and  the  mass  of  those  who  are  called  upon  to  discharge 
the  responsibilities  of  citizenship  year  by  year,  the  most  invaluable  lesson  that 
we  learn  from  the  life  of  our  beloved  departed  President  is  that  not  only  is  it  not 
incompatible  with  success,  but  it  is  the  surest  means  of  success,  to  consecrate 
heart  and  life  to  that  which  is  true  and  right,  and  above  all  questions  of  mere 
policy,  wedding  the  soul  to  truth  and  right  and  the  God  of  truth  and  righteous 
ness  in  holy  wedlock,  never  to  be  dissolved.  I  feel  just  at  this  point  that  we 
need  this  lesson. 

This  great,  wondrous  land  of  ours;  this  mighty  Nation  in  its  marvellous 
upward  career,  with  its  ever  increasing  power,  opening  its  arms  to  receive  from 
all  lands  people  of  all  languages,  all  religions,  and  all  conditions,  and  hoping  in 
the  warm  embrace  of  political  brotherhood  to  blend  them  with  us,  to  melt  them 
into  a  common  mass,  needs  this  lesson  of  virtue,  so  that  when  melted  and  run 
over  again  in  a  new  type  of  manhood,  it  will  incorporate  all  the  various  nations 
of  the  earth  in  one  grand  brotherhood,  presenting  before  the  nations  rf  the  world 
a  spectacle  of  freedom  and  strength  and  prosperity  and  power  beyond  anything 
before  known.  Let  me  say  the  permanency  of  the  work  and  its  continual 
enlargement  must  depend  on  our  maintaining  virtue  as  well  as  intelligence,  and 
making  dominant  in  all  the  land  those  principles  of  pure  morality  that  Jesus 
Christ  has  taught  us.  Just  as  we  cling  to  that  we  are  safe  ;  and  just  as  we  forget 
and  depart  from  that  we  proceed  toward  disaster  and  ruin ;  and  when  we  see 
what  has  been  accomplished  in  a  mighty  life  like  this,  we  have  an  instance  of  the 
power  of  truth  and  right  which  spreads  from  heart  to  heart,  and  from  life  to  life, 
and  from  State  to  State,  and  finally  from  nation  to  nation,  until  these  pure  prin 
ciples  reigning  everywhere,  God  shall  realize  His  great  pnrpose  so  long  ago 
expressed  to  us  in  the  words  of  prophrc;r,  that  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are 
become  the  kingdoms  of  our  God  and  His  Christ ;  so  that  over  the  dead  body  of 


256  THE   LIFE   OF  PRESIDENT  GAKFIELD. 

James  A.  Garfield  may  all  the  people  join  hands  and  swear  by  the  eternal  God 
that  they  will  dismiss  all  unworthy  purposes,  and  love  and  worship  the  true  and 
the  right ;  and  in  the  inspiration  of  the  grand  principles  that  Jesus  Christ  taught, 
peek  to  realize  the  grand  ends  to  which  His  words  of  t.uth  and  right  continually 
point  us. 

I  cannot  prolong  my  remarks  to  any  great  extent.  There  are  two  or  three 
things  that  I  must  say,  however,  before  I  close.  There  is  a  voice  to  the  Church 
in,  this  death  that  I  cannot  pause  now  to  speak  of  particularly. 

THE  LOSS  HIS  FAMILY  SUSTAINED. 

There  is  a  tenderer  and  more  awful  voice  That  speaks  to  the  members  of  the 
family;  to  that  sacred  circle  within  which  really  his  true  life  and  character  were 
better  developed  and  more  perfectly  known  than  anywhere  el?e.  What  words 
can  tell  the  weight  of  anguish  that  rests  upon  the  hearts  of  those  who  so  dearly 
loved  him  and  shared  with  him  the  sweet  sanctities  of  his  home,  the  pure  life, 
the  gentleness,  the  kindness  and  the  manliness  that  pervaded  all  his  actions,  and 
made  his  home  a  charming  one  for  its  inmates  and  for  all  that  shared  in  its  hos 
pitalities.  It  is  of  all  things  the  saddest,  that  those  bound  to  him  by  the  tenderest 
ties  of  the  home  circle  are  called  to  yield  him  to  the  grave  ;  to  hear  that  voice  of 
love  no  more  ;  to  behold  that  manly  form  no  longer  moving  in  the  eweet  circle 
of  home;  to  receive  no  more  the  benediction  from  the  loving  hand  of  the  father, 
that  rested  upon  the  heads  of  his  children  and  commanded  the  blessings  of  God 
upon  them ;  the  dear  old  mother,  who  realizes  here  to-day  that  her  four-score 
years  are  after  all  but  labor  and  sorrow,  to  whom  we  owe,  back  of  all  I  have 
spoken  of.  the  education  and  training  that  made  him  what  he  was,  and  who  has 
been  led  from  that  humble  home  in  the  wilderness,  side  by  side  with  him,  in  all 
his  elevation,  and  assured  him  the  triumph  and  the  glory  that  came  to  him  step 
by  step  as  he  mounted  up  from  high  to  higher,  to  receive  the  highest  honors  that 
the  land  could  bestow  upon  him,  left  behind  him,  lingering  on  the  shore,  while 
he  has  passed  over  to  the  other  side.  What  words  can  express  the  sympathy  lhat 
is  due  to  her,  or  the  consolation  that  can  strengthen  her  heart  and  give  her  cour 
age  to  bear  this  bitter  bereavement  ? 

And  the  wife,  who  began  with  him  in  her  young  womanhood  and  has  bravely 
kept  step  with  him  through  all  his  wondrous  career,  and  who  has  been  not  only 
his  wife,  but  his  friend  and  his  counselor  through  all  their  succession  of  prosper 
ities,  and  this  increase  of  influence  and  power,  and  who,  when  the  day  of  calam 
ity  came,  was  there,  his  ministering  angel,  his  prophetess  and  his  priestess, 
when  the  circumstances  were  such  as  to  forbid  ministrations  from  other  hands, 
speaking  to  him  the  words  of  cheer  which  sustained  him  through  that  long  fear 
ful  struggle  for  life,  and  watching  over  him  when  his  dying  vision  rested  on  her 
beloved  form,  and  sought  from  her  eyes  an  answering  gaze  that  should  speak 
•when  words  could  not  be  spoken  of  a  love  that  has  never  died,  and  that,  now 
must  be  immo-tal.  And  the  children  who  have  grown  up  to  an  age  when  they 
'can  remember  all  that  belonged  to  him,  left  fatherless  in  a  world  like  this,  yet 
surrounded  with  a  Nation's  sympathy,  and  with  a  world's  affection,  and  able  to 
treasure  in  their  hearts  the  grand  lessons  of  his  noble  and  wondrous  life,  may  be 
assured  that  the  eyes  of  the  Nation  are  upon  them,  and  that  the  hearts  of  the 
people  go  out  after  them.  Wrhile  there  is  much  to  support  and  encourage,  it  is 


THE  LIFE   OF  PRESIDENT   GARFIELD.  257 

etill  a  ead  thing,  and  calls  for  our  deepest  sympathy,  that  they  have  lost  such  a 
father  and  are  left  to  make  their  way  through  this  rough  world  without  his  guid 
ing  hand  or  his  wise  counsels.  But  that  which  makes  this  terrible  to  them  now 
is  just  that  which,  as  the  years  go  by,  will  make  very  sweet  and  bright  and  joyous 
memories  to  fill  the  coming  years.  By  this  very  loss  which  they  deplore,  and  by 
all  the  loving  actions  that  bound  them  in  blessed  sympathy  in  the  home  circle, 
they  will  live  over  again  ten  thousand  times  all  the  sweet  life  of  the  past ;  and 
though  dead,  he  will  still  live  with  them  ;  and  though  his  tongue  be  dumb  in  the 
grave,  it  will  speak  anew  to  them  ten  thousand  beautiful  lessons  of  love  and 
righteousness  and  truth. 

May  God,  in  His  infinite  mercy,  fold  them  in  His  arms  and  bless  them  as  they 
need  in  this  hour  of  thick  darkness,  and  bear  them  safely  through  what  remains 
of  the  troubles  and  sorrows  of  their  earthly  pilgrimage  unto  the  everlasting  home 
where  there  shall  be  no  more  death  nor  crying :  neither  shall  there  be  any  more 
pain,  for  the  former  things  shall  have  forever  passed  away.  We  commit  you, 
beloved  friends,  to  the  arms  and  the  care  of  the  Everlasting  Father,  who  has 
promised  to  be  the  God  of  the  widow  and  the  Father  of  the  fatherless  in  His  holy 
habitation,  and  whose  sweet  promise  goes  with  us  through  all  the  dark  and 
stormy  paths  of  life— "I  will  never  leave  thee  nor  forsake  thee." 

I  have  discharged  now  the  solemn  covenant  and  trust  reposed  in  me,  many 
years  ago,  in  harmony  with  a  friendship  that  has  never  known  a  cloud  ;  a  confi 
dence  that  has  never  trembled,  and  a  love  that  has  never  changed.  Farewell,  my 
friend  and  brother  ;  thou  hast  fought  a  good  fight,  thou  hast  finished  thy  course, 
thou  hast  kept  thy  faith  :  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  thee  a  crown  of  right 
eousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  will  give  to  thee  in  that  day  ;  aud 
not  unto  thee  alone,  but  unto  all  them  who  love  His  offering. 

Dr.  Errett  was  listened  to  with  close  and  earnest  attention.  He 
spoke  tor  forty  minutes,  and  when  be  closed  a  hush  for  a  moment 
hung  over  the  vast  audience. 

The  Rev.  Jabez  Hall  then  read  General  Garfield's  favorite 
hymn,  which  was  beautifully  sung  by  the  Vocal  Society: 

Ho,  reapers  of  life's  harvest, 

Why  stand  with  rusted  blade 
Until  the  night  draws  round  thee 

And  day  begins  to  fade? 
Why  stand  ye  idle,  waiting 

For  reapers  more  to  come? 
The  golden  morn  is  passing, 

Why  sit  ye  idle,  dumb  ? 

Thrust  in  your  sharpened  sickle 

And  gather  in  the  grain : 
The  night  is  fast  approaching 

And  soon  will  come  again. 
The  Master  calls  for  reapers 

And  shall  he  call  in  vain? 


258  THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 

Shall  sheaves  lie  there,  ungathered, 
And  waste  upon  the  plain  I 

Mount  up  the  heights  of  wisdom 

And  crush  each  error  low. 
Keep  back  no  words  of  knowledge 

That  human  hearts  should  know. 
Be  faithful  to  thy  mission 

In  service  of  thy  Lord, 
And  then  a  golden  chaplet 

Shall  be  thy  just  reward. 

The  day  of  the  funeral  was  observed  throughout  the  country  as 
a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer.  Business  of  every  description  was 
suspended.  At  2  o'clock,  the  hour  of  the  funeral,  bells  were 
tolled  in  every  city,  town,  and  hamlet,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf.  At  3  o'clock  appropriate 
religious  services  were  held  with  equal  universality.  Many  of  the 
sermons  that  were  delivered  were  notable  for  the  lofty  patriotism 
they  breathed,  and  the  unquestioning  admiration  they  exhibited 
for  the  dead  President.  The  following  extract  will  indicate 
the  work  the  people  universally  expected  of  him  had  he  lived: 

The  work  which  President  Ga^fi?ld  outlined  for  himself  in  his  inaugural  ad 
dress,  briefly  summarized,  was  as  follows  :  To  main  rain  the  supremacy  of  the 
Nation ;  to  protect  the  citizenship  of  the  negroes,  so  often  and  so  bitterly  assailed; 
to  promote  the  freedom  and  purity  of  the  ballot;  to  aid  in  summoning  "  all  the 
Constitutional  powers  of  the  Nation  and  of  the  States  and  :ill  the  volunteer 
forces  of  the  people  to  me?t  the  danger  of  illiteracy  by  the  savins  influence  of 
universal  education;  "  to  d  'fend  specie  payments  against  any  new  revival  of  pre 
judice  and  ignorance,  and  refund  the  public  debt  at  low  •  ates  of  interest ;  to  assert 
the  ri-jrht  of  the  United  States  to  supervise  any  interoceanic  canal  across  the 
Isthmus;  to  break  up  polygamy  in  Utah  by  the  aid  of  wise  Congressional  enact 
ments,  and  to  promote  reform  in  the  Civil  Service  by  ur<rirg  Congress  to  pa«s  a 
law  to  fix  the  tenure  '•  of  the  minor  offices  of  the  several  executive  departments, 
and  prescribe  the  grounds  for  which  removals  shall  be  made." 

The  work  he  thus  outlined  b^can  under  rhe  favorable  conditions  of  earnest  and 
patriotic  mrpose  on  his  part,  an  1  the  stroneminport  of  public  opinion.  How  well 
he  carried  it  on  during  the  brief  period  before  he  received  his  cruel  and  fatal 
wound  is  fre-h  in  men's  minds.  It  was  commonly  said  that  no  President  ever 
accomplished  so  much  for  the  good  of  the  country  in  the  line  of  administrative 
work  in  so  short  a  time.  By  ihe  help  of  his  Cabinet  he  reformed  many  serious 
abuses,  broke  up  the  Star  Route  conspiracy,  saved  over  a  million  of  dollars  in 
postal  expenses,  settled  tho  problem  of  funding  the  hisih  interest  bonds  over 
which  Congress  had  pothered  for  months  to  no  purpose,  and  settled  it  in  such  a 


THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  259 

way  as  to  command  the  approbation  of  both  parties  and  the  admiration  of  finan 
ciers  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  and  gave  the  healthful  stimulus  of  strong  and 
intelligent  statesmanship  to  all  the  channels  of  Governmental  action.  He  waited 
the  meeting  of  Congress  for  the  development  of  plans  respecting  aid  to  education 
in  the  South,  the  establishment  of  further  safeguards  against  fraud  and  force  at 
National  elections,  the  treatment  of  the  hideous  disease  of  polygamy,  the  reform 
of  the  evils  of  the  spoils  system  in  the  Civil  Service,  the  protection  of  the  rights 
and  interests  of  the  United  States  upon  the  Isthmus,  and  other  matters  of  Na 
tional  concern  in  which  he  needed  the  aid  of  legislation.  He  was  filled  with  a 
lofty  conception  of  the  National  idea — not  the  conception  of  a  dreamer,  though, 
or  of  a  mere  maker  of  patriotic  phrases,  but  of  an  earnest  worker  who  believed  a 
President  was  bound  by  the  obligations  of  his  station  to  labor  to  make  the  coun 
try  better  for  his  having  occupied  its  seat  of  highest  honor  and  power.—  Jf.  T. 
Tribune. 

The  city  of  New  York,  in  common  with  other  cities,  was  for 
many  days  draped  in  black  and  white  emblems  of  mourning.  The 
draperies  of  some  of  the  buildings,  noticeably  the  City  Hall,  were 
especially  beautiful. 

In  Europe  there  were  many  buildings  and  residences  decorated 
in  honor  of  the  sad  event.  In  the  business  portion  of  the  West 
End  of  London,  particularly  in  Regent  street  and  Oxford  street, 
there  was  hardly  a  shop  which  did  not  show  some  sign  of  mourning.* 

Expressions  of  grief  and  sympathy  for  the  bereaved  family  were 

*  There  was  a  remarkable  demonstration  at  Dr.  Parker's  City  Temple,  London, 
which  was  crowded  to  overflowing,  there  being  hundreds  of  people  outside  un 
able  to  gain  admittance.  The  pulpit  was  draped  with  crape  and  the  stars  and 
stripes  blended,  and  with  a  imgnific^nt  white  wreath.  The  service  began  with 
the  anthem,  "Sleep  thy  last  sleep,"  followed  by  the  dead  march,  "So  be  thou 
faithful  unto  death."  Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  Newman  Hall,  the  burden 
of  which  was,  u  Thy  will  be  done."  The  solo,  "  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth," 
was  then  sung  by  Miss  Beebe.  Dr.  Parker  took  as  his  text,  "As  in  Adam  all 
died."  He  said:  "The  funeral  is  attended  by  the  whole  civilized  world.  It  is 
impossible  to  recall  an  instance  where  deeper  sympathy  has  been  displayed  by 
one  nation  for  another.  President  Garfield's  greatness  in  life  was  concealed  by 
modesty,  but  is  now  seen  by  every  one."  He  sketched  General  Garfield's  career, 
showing  its  wonderful  vicissitudes.  He  had  handled  the  world  bravely.  The 
throne  which  knew  him  best  was  that  he  ha1*  left  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  As 
the  next  name  to  tint  of  the  Queen,  that  of  Queen  Lucretia  Garfield  stands  in  all 
English  hearts.  Death  won  a  poor  victory  compared  with  hers.  She  behaved 
with  a  heroism  which  would  thrill  the  world. 

At  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Parker,  a  message  expressing  admiration  and  the 
deepest  sympathy  was  sent  by  cable  to  Mrs.  Garfield,  the  audience  simultaneously 
rising  as  a  sign  of  assent.  The  service  concluded  with  a  solo  by  Antoinette  Ster 
ling  and  the  hymn,  "Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee." 


260  THE   LIFE   OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 

not  confined  to  the  United  States.  From  almost  every  nation 
on  the  earth  such  messages  and  tokens  were  received.  That  from 
the  Queen  of  England  was  particularly  tender  and  sympathetic. 
Her  messages  to  Mrs.  Garfield  during  the  illness  of  the  President 
were  frequent  and  sincere.  On  hearing  of  the  death  she  cabled  to 
the  British  Minister  to  present  a  floral  tribute  to  the  stricken  wile 
in  her  name.  It  was  a  very  large  and  exquisite  specimen  of  floral 
art,  composed  of  white  roses,  srnilax,  and  stephanotis,  and  was 
one  of  the  most  conspicuous  offerings  on  the  bier  at  the  funeral. 

Alfred  Tennyson  wrote  from  Haslemere  : 

"  We  learned  yesterday  that  the  President  was  gone.  We  had 
watched  with  much  admiration  his  fortitude,  and,  not  without 
hope,  the  fluctuations  of  his  health  for  these  many  days.  Now 
we  almost  seem  to  have  lost  a  personal  friend.  He  was  a  good 
man  and  a  noble.  Accept  from  me  and  my  wife  and  family 
assurances  of  heartfelt  sympathy  for  Mrs.  Garfield,  for  yourself, 
and  for  your  country.'' 

The  general  sorrow  was  participated  in  not  only  by  all  denom 
inations  of  Christians,  but  by  all  religious  sects  and  bodies  in  the 
country.  As  an  illustration,  Vicar-General  Quinn,  in  a  letter  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  of  New  York  City,  said : 

14  In  accordance  with  the  recommendation  so  appropriate  at  this 
time,  His  Eminence,  the  Cardinal  Archbishop,  desires  that  the 
Holy  Sacrifice  be  offered  in  all  the  churches  of  the  archdiocese  at 
the  usual  hour  of  High  Mass,  on  Monday,  and  that  the  prayer 
"pro  quacumque  necessitate  "  be  added  to  the  Mass  of  the  day.  He 
also  directs  that  the  Litany  of  the  Saints  and  the  prayer  for  the 
public  authorities  be  recited  either  before  or  after  the  service.'' 

Immediately  after  the  assassination,  Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Field  an 
nounced  that  he  would  endeavor  to  raise  the  sum  of  $250,000,  by 
subscription,  to  be  invested  in  United  States  bonds  for  the  benefit 
of  Mrs.  Garfield  and  her  family.  The  primary  object  of  this  fund 
was  to  defray  medical  and  other  expenses  in  case  the  President 
lived,  but  it  was  considered  all  the  more  desirable  and  necessary 
should  his  wound  prove  fatal.  One  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  were  promptly  subscribed,  but  further  response  was  delayed 
until  his  death.  On  this  the  response  became  universal,  and  all 


THE  LIFE   OF  PRESIDENT  GAKFIELD.  261 

classes  showed  an  eager  desire  to  contribute.  The  sum  raised 
was  over  $300,000. 

Another  fund,  for  a  Garfield  monument  at  Cleveland,  was 
begun  by  subscriptions  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  met  with  an 
immediate  popular  response. 

September  27th  was  marked  by  a  quiet  resumption  of  duty 
by  the  people  of  the  nation.  But  GARFIELD  was  henceforward 
a  hallowed  name  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  and  his  image 
stands  forever  in  the  niche  of  the  Temple  of  Fame,  by  the  side 
of  George  Washington  and  Abraham  Lincoln. 

AFTER  THE  BURIAL. 
By  OLITEB  WENDELL  HOLMES  in  The  Boston  Globe. 

I. 

Fallen  with  autumn's  falling  leaf. 

Ere  yet  his  summer's  noon  was  past, 
Our  friend,  our  guide,  our  trusted  chief — 

What  words  can  match  a  woe  so  vast ; 

And  whose  the  chartered  claim  to  speak 

The  sacred  grief  where  all  have  part, 
When  sorrow  saddens  every  cheek 

And  broods  in  every  aching  heart  ? 

Yet  Nature  prompts  the  burning  phrase 
That  thrills  the  hushed  and  shrouded  hall, 

The  loud  lament,  the  sorrowing  praise, 
The  silent  tear  that  love  lets  fall. 

In  loftiest  verse,  in  lowliest  rhyme, 
Shall  strive  unblamed  the  minstrel  choir— 

The  singers  of  the  newborn  time 
And  trembling  age  with  outworn  lyre. 

No  room  for  pride,  no  place  for  blame— 

We  fling  out  blossoms  on  the  grave, 
Pale— scentless — faded— all  we  claim, 

This  only— what  we  had  we  gave. 

Ah,  could  the  grief  of  all  who  mourn 

Blend  in  one  voice  its  bitter  cry, 
The  wail  to  Heaven's  high  arches  borne 

Would  echo  through  the  caverned  sky. 


262  THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 

n. 

Oh  happiest  land  whose  peaceful  choice 
Fills  with  a  breath  its  empty  throne  1 

God,  speaking  through  thy  people's  voice, 
Has  made  that  voice  for  once  His  own. 

No  angry  passion  shakes  the  State 
Whose  weary  servant  seeks  for  rest— 

And  who  could  fear  that  scowling  hate 
Would  strike  at  that  unguarded  breast  ? 

He  stands  ;  unconscious  of  his  doom, 
In  manly  strength,  erect,  serene,— 

Around  him  summer  spreads  her  bloom- 
He  falls, — what  horror  clothes  the  scene  I 

How  swift  the  sudden  flash  of  woe 
Where  all  was  bright  as  childhood's  dream, 

As  if  from  Heaven's  ethereal  bow 
Had  leaped  the  lightning's  arrowy  gleam. 

Blot  the  foul  deed  from  history's  page,— 
Let  not  the  all-betraying  sun 

Blush  for  the  day  that  stains  an  age 
When  murder's  blackest  wreath  was  won. 

III. 

Pale  on  his  couch  the  sufferer  lies, 
The  weary  battle-ground  of  pain  ; 

Love  tends  his  pillow,  science  tries 
Her  every  art,  alas  1  in  vain. 

The  strife  endures  how  long  !  how  long ! 

Life,  death,  seem  balanced  in  the  scale, 
While  roiind  his  bed  a  viewless  throng 

Awaits  each  morrow's  changing  tale. 

In  realms  the  desert  ocean  parts 
What  myriads  watch  with  tear-filled  eyes, 

His  pulse-beats  echoing  in  their  hearts, 
His  breathings  counted  with  their  sighs  1 

Slowly  the  stores  of  life  are  spent, 
Yet  hope  still  battles  with  despair,— 

Will  heaven  not  yield  when  knees  are  bent  ? 
Answer,  O  Thou  that  hearest  prayer  ! 

But  silent  is  the  brazen  sky,— 
On  sweeps  the  meteor's  threatening  train,— 

Unswerving  Nature's  mute  reply, 
Bound  in  her  adamantine  chain. 


THE  LIFE  OF  PRESIDENT  GAKFIELD.  263 

Not  ours  the  verdict  to  decide 
Whom  death  shall  claim  or  skill  shall  save ; 

The  hero's  life  though  heaven  denied 
It  gave  our  land  a  martyr's  grave. 

Nor  count  the  teaching  vainly  sent 
How  human  hearts  their  griefs  may  share,  | 

The  lesson  woman's  love  has  lent 
What  hope  may  do,  what  faith  can  bear  I 

Farewell  I  the  leaf-strown  earth  enfolds 

Our  stay,  our  pride,  our  hopes,  our  fears, 
And  autumn's  golden  sun  beholds 

A  nation  bowed,  a  world  in  tears. 


THE  GARFIELD  MONUMENT. 

The  Garfield  Monument  Fund  Committee  at  Cleveland  issued 
the  following : 

To  the  People  of  the  United  States: 

The  movement  to  secure  funds  for  the  erection  of  a  monument 
over  the  grave  of  James  A.  Garfield  is  being  responded  to  from 
all  sections  of  the  country — East,  West,  South  and  North.  In 
order  to  make  it  popular  and  successful  it  is  desirable  and  will 
be  necessary  for  the  citizens  of  the  different  States  to  immediately 
organize.  The  committee  hereby  request  all  national  banks, 
private  bankers,  savings  banks,  newspapers  and  postmasters  to 
call  attention  to  the  movement  by  posting  notices  and  otherwise, 
and  to  receive  contributions  and  to  remit  the  same  to  the  Second 
National  Bank  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  which  has  been  designated  as 
treasurer  of  the  fund;  also  to  send  the  names  and  post  office  ad 
dress  of  all  contributors.  These  names  will  all  be  recorded  in 
books  that  will  be  preserved  in  the  monument.  All  contribu 
tions  will  be  receipted  for  by  the  Second  National  Bank. 

J.  H.  WADE,  JOSEPH  PERKINS, 

H.  B.  PAYNE,  J.  H.  RHODES. 


APPENDIX 


GARFIELD'S   CHICAGO   CONVENTION   SPEECH. 

(New  York  Times,  June  IQl/i.) 

General  Garfield's  speech  nominating  Sherman  at  Chicago  last 
Saturday  evening  was  not  telegraphed.  It  is  a  fair  specimen 
of  his  eloquence  : 

"  Mr.  President  :  I  have  witnessed  the  extraordinary  scenes  of 
this  convention  with  deep  solicitude.  No  emotion  touches  my 
heart  more  quickly  than  a  sentiment  in  honor  of  a  great  and  noble 
character,  but  as  I  sat  on  these  seats  and  witnessed  these  demon 
strations,  it  seemed  to  me  you  were  a  human  ocean  in  a  tempest. 

"  I  have  seen  the  sea  lashed  into  fury  and  tossed  into  spray, 
and  its  grandeur  moves  the  soul  of  the  dullest  man,  but  I  re 
member  that  it  is  not  the  billows  but  the  calm  level  of  the  sea 
from  which  all  heights  and  depths  are  measured.  When  the 
storm  has  passed  and  the 'hour  of  calm  settles  on  the  ocean, 
when  the  sunlight  bathes  its  smooth  surface,  then  the  astronomer 
and  surveyor  takes  the  level  from  which  he  measures  all  terres 
trial  heights  and  depths. 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  convention,  your  present  temper  may  not 
mark  the  healthful  pulse  of  our  people.  When  our  enthusiasm 
has  passed,  when  the  emotions  of  this  hour  have  subsided,  we 
shall  mid  that  calm  level  of  public  opinion  below  the  storm  from 
which  the  thoughts  of  a  mighty  people  are  to  be  measured,  and 
by  which  their  final  action  will  be  determined.  Not  here  in 
this  brilliant  circle,  where  15,000  men  and  women  are  assem 
bled,  is  the  destiny  of  the  Republican  Party  to  be  decreed. 
Not  here,  where  I  see  the  enthusiastic  faces  of  seven  hundred 
and  fifty-six  delegates,  waiting  to  cast  their  votes  into  the  urn 
and  determine  the  choice  of  the  Republic,  but  by  four  million 
Republican  iiresides,  where  the  thoughtful  voters,  with  their 
wives  and  children  about  them  ;  with  the  culm  thoughts  in- 


APPENDIX.  265 


spired  by  love  of  home  and  love  of  country  ;  with  the  history 
of  the  past,  the  hopes  of  the  future  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
great  meu  who  have  adorned  and  blessed  our  nation  in  days 
gone  by — there  God  prepares  the  verdict  that  shall  determine 
the  wisdom  of  our  work  to-night.  Not  in  Chicago,  in  the  heats 
of  June,  but  in  the  sober  quiet  that  will  come  to  them  between 
now  and  November,  in  the  silence  of  deliberate  judgment,  will 
this  great  question  be  settled.  Let  us  aid  them  to-night. 

"  But  now,  gentlemen  of  the  convention,  what  do  we  want  ? 
[A  voice,  *  Garfield  !'  followed  by  applause].  Bear  with  me  a 
moment,  hear  me  for  this  cause,  and  for  a  moment,  '  be  silent, 
that  you  may  hear.'  Twenty-five  years  ago  this  republic  was 
wearing  a  triple  chain  of  bondage.  Long  familiarity  with  traffic 
in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men  had  paralyzed  the  consciences  of 
a  majority  of  our  people.  The  baleful  doctrine  of  State  sove 
reignty  had  shackled  and  weakened  the  noblest  and  most  bene 
ficent  powers  of  the  National  Government,  and  the  grasping 
power  of  slavery  was  seizing  the  virgin  Territories  of  the  West 
and  dragging  them  into  the  den  of  eternal  bondage.  At  that 
crisis  the  Republican  Party  was  born  ;  it  drew  its  first  inspira 
tion  from  that  fire  of  liberty  which  God  has  lighted  in  every  hu 
man  heart,  and  which  all  the  powers  of  ignorance  and  tyranny 
can  never  wholly  extinguish.  The  Republican  Party  came  to 
deliver  and  save  the  republic.  Jt  entered  the  arena  where  the 
beleaguered  and  assailed  Territories  were  struggling  for  freedom, 
and  drew  around  them  a  sacred  circle  of  liberty,  which  the 
demon  of  slavery  has  never  dared  to  cross.  It  made  them  free 
forever.  Strengthened  by  its  victory  on  the  frontier,  the  young 
party,  under  the  leadership  of  that  great  man  who,  on  this 
spot,  twenty  years  ago,  was  made  its  leader,  entered  the  national 
capital,  and  assumed  the  high  duties  of  the  Government.  The 
light  which  shone  from  its  banner  dispelled  the  darkness  in 
which  slavery  had  enshrouded  the  capital,  melted  the  shackles 
of  every  slave,  and  threw  its  rays  into  the  darkest  corner  of 
every  slave-pen  within  the  shadow  of  the  Capitol.  Our  great 
national  industries,  by  an  unprotected  policy,  were  themselves 
prostrated,  and  the  streams  of  revenue  flowed  in  such  feeble 
currents  that  the  Treasury  itself  was  well-nigh  empty.  The 
money  of  the  people  was  the  wretched  notes  of  two  thousand 
uncontrolled  and  irresponsible  State  banking  corporations,  which 
were  filling  the  country  with  a  circulation  that  poisoned  rather 
than  sustained  the  life  of  business. 

"  The  Republican  Party  changed  all  this.  It  abolished  the 
Babel  of  confusion  and  gave  the  country  a  currency  as  national 


266  APPENDIX. 

as  its  flag  and  based  it  upon  the  sacred  faith  of  the  people.  It 
threw  its  protecting  arm  around  our  great  industries,  and  they 
stood  erect,  as  with  new  life.  It  filled  with  the  spirit  of  true 
nationality  all  the  great  functions  of  the  Government ;  it  con 
fronted  a  rebellion  of  unexampled  magnitude,  with  slavery  be 
hind  it,  and,  under  God,  fought  the  final  battle  of  liberty  until 
the  victory  was  won.  Then,  after  the  storms  of  battle,  were 
heard  the  sweet,  calm  words  of  peace  spoken  by  the  conquering 
nation,  and  saying  to  the  conquered  foe  that  lay  prostrate  at  its 
feet  :  '  This  is' our  only  revenge,  that  you  join  us  in  lifting  into 
the  serene  firmament  of  the  Constitution,  to  shine  like  stars  for 
ever  and  ever,  the  immortal  principles  of  truth  and  justice  that 
all  men,  white  or  black,  shall  be  free  and  stand  equal  before 
the  law. '  Then  came  the  questions  of  reconstruction,  the  public 
debt,  and  the  public  faith. 

"  The  Republican  Party  has  finished  its  twenty-five  years  of 
glory  and  success,  and  is  here  to-night  to  ask  you  to  launch  it 
on  another  lustrum  of  glory  and  victory.  How  shall  you  do  it  ? 
Not  by  assailing  any  Republican.  [Cheers.]  The  battle  this 
year  is  our  Thermopylae.  We  stand  on  the  narrow  isthmus,  and 
the  little  Spartan  band  must  meet  all  the  Greeks  whom  Xerxes 
can  bring  against  them,  and  then  the  stars  in  their  courses  will 
fight  for  us.  [Applause.]  To  win  the  victory  we  want  the 
vote  of  every  Grant  Republican,  and  of  every  Elaine  man,  and 
of  every  anti-Blaine  man.  We  are  here  to  take  calm  counsel 
together,  and  to  inquire  what  we  shall  do.  We  want  a  man 
whose  life  and  opinions  embody  all  the  achievements  of  which  I 
have  spoken. 

"  I  am  happy  to  present  to  you  and  to  name  for  your  consid 
eration  a  man  who  was  the  comrade,  the  associate,  and  the 
friend  of  nearly  all  those  persons  whose  faces  look  down  upon  us 
in  this  building  to-night;  a  man  who  began  his  career  in  the 
politics  of  this  country  twenty-five  years  ago  ;  whose  first  ser 
vice  was  done  in  the  days  of  peril  on  the  plains  of  Kansas,  when 
the  first  red  drop  of  that  blood-shower  began  to  fall,  which  in 
creased  into  the  deluge  of  gore  in  the  Rebellion.  He  stood  by 
young  Kansas  then  and  returned  to  his  seat  in  the  national 
legislature.  Through  all  the  subsequent  years  his  pathway  has 
been  marked  by  the  labors  which  he  had  performed  in  every  de 
partment  of  legislation.  If  you  ask  me  for  his  monument,  I  point 
to  twenty-five  years  of  the  National  Statutes.  There  is  not  one 
great,  one  beneficent  statute  on  your  books  within  that  time 
that  has  been  placed  there  without  his  intelligent  and  powerful 
aid.  He  was  one  of  the  men  who  formulated  the  laws  that 


APPENDIX.  267 

raised  our  great  armies  and  navies  and  carried  us  through  the 
war.  His  hand  was  in  the  workmanship  of  the  statutes  which 
brought  back  the  unity  and  married  calm  of  these  States.  His 
hand  was  in  all  that  great  legislation  which  created  the  great 
war  currency  that  carried  us  through,  and  in  the  still  greater 
work  that  redeemed  the  promise  of  the  Government  and  made 
it  good.  [Applause.] 

k>  At  last  he  passed  from  the  halls  of  legislation  into  a  high 
executive  office,  and  there  he  displayed  that  experience,  intelli 
gence,  firmness,  and  power  of  equipoise  which  throngs  a  stormy 
period  of  two  and  a  half  years,  with  half  the  public  press  howl 
ing  and  crying  '  Crucify  him,'  carried  him  through  unswerved 
by  a  single  hair  from  the  line  of  duty.  He  has  improved  the 
resources  of  the  Government  and  the  great  business  interests  of 
the  country,  and  has  carried  us  through  in  the  execution  of  that 
law  without  a  jar,  in  spite  of  the  false  prophets  and  Cassandras 
of  half  the  continent.  [Applause.]  He  has  shown  himself 
able  to  meet  in  the  calmness  of  statesmanship  all  the  great 
emergencies  of  government.  For  twenty-five  years  he  has  trod 
that  perilous  height  of  public  duty,  and  against  all  the  shafts 
of  malice  he  has  borne  his  crest  unharmed,  and  the  blaze  of  that 
tierce  light  which  has  been  upon  him  has  found  no  flaw  in  his 
honor,  no  stain  on  his  shield.  I  do  not  present  him  as  a  better 
Republican  or  a  better  man  than  thousands  of  others  whom  we 
honor  and  revere  ;  but  I  present  him  for  your  deliberate  consid 
eration.  I  nominate  John  Sherman,  of  Ohio." 


GARFIELD'S  INFORMAL   ACCEPTANCE. 

CHICAGO,  June  7. — About  midnight  the  committee  appointed 
to  wait  on  Garfield  and  Arthur,  and  inform  them  of  their  nomina 
tion,  found  them  at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel,  and  Senator  Hoar, 
as  chairman  made  an  appropriate  speech.  Gartield  responded  : 

"  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  :  I  assure  you  that  the  infor 
mation  you  have  officially  given  me  brings  the  sense  of  very 
grave  responsibility,  and  especially  so  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
I  was  a  member  of  your  body,  a  fact  that  could  not  have  exist 
ed  with  propriety  had  I  had  the  slightest  expectation  that  my 
name  would  be  connected  with  the  nomination  for  the  office. 

44 1  have  felt,  with  you,  great  solicitude  concerning  the  situa 
tion  of  our  party  during  the  struggle  ;  but  believeing  that  you 
are  correct  in  assuring  me  that  substantial  unity  has  been 
reached  in  the  conclusion,  it  gives  me  a  gratification  far  greater 
than  any  personal  pleasure  your  announcement  can  bring. 


268  APPENDIX. 

"  I  accept  the  trust  comitted  to  my  hands. 

"  As  to  the  work  of  our  party  and  as  to  the  character  of  the 
campaign  to  be  entered  upon,  I  will  take  an  early  occasion  to 
reply  more  fully  than  I  can  properly  do  to-night. 

4i  I  thank  you  for  the  assurance  of  confidence  and  esteem  you 
have  presented  to  me,  and  hope  we  shall  see  our  future  as  prom 
ising  as  are  the  indications  to-night. ' ' 


GARFIELD   IN   THE   LIGHT    OF   PHRENOLOGY. 

(From  the  New  York  Tribune  of  August  1st.) 

THE  August  number  of  The  Phrenological  Journal  contains  a 
sketch  of  General  Garfield  which  begins  with  the  following 
analysis  of  his  mental  characteristics,  based  upon  an  examina 
tion  from  the  phrenologist's  point  of  view.  As  many  persons 
attribute  no  little  value  to  such  phrenological  statements,  this 
analysis  will  undoubtedly  be  read  with  interest  : 

"  James  A.  Garfield  is  a  man  of  very  strong  physical  consti 
tution,  with  broad  shoulders,  deep  chest,  and  a  good  nutritive 
system,  which  serve  to  sustain  with  ample  vigor  his  uncom 
monly  large  brain  ;  standing  fully  six  feet  high,  and  weighing 
220  pounds.  The  head,  which  is  twenty-four  inches  in  circum 
ference,  seems  to  be  very  long  from  front  to  rear,  and  then  the 
length  seems  extreme  from  the  centre  of  the  ear  to  the  root  of 
the  nose  ;  it  is  also  long  from  the  opening  of  the  ear  backward. 
The  whole  back-head  is  large,  and  the  social  group  amply  indi 
cated,  but  the  reader  will  observe  the  extreme  length  anterior 
to  the  opening  of  the  ears,  especially  across  the  lower  part  of  the 
forehead,  in  which  are  located  the  organs  of  the  perceptive  in 
tellect,  those  which  gather  and  retain  knowledge,  and  bring  a 
man  into  quick  sympathy  with  the  external  world,  and  also 
with  the  world  of  facts  as  developed  in  science  and  literature. 

"  Perhaps  there  are  not  two  men  in  a  hundred  thousand  who 
are  intelligent  and  educated,  who  will  see  as  much  and  take  into 
account  so  many  of  the  principles  involved  in  what  he  sees  as  the 
subject  before  us.  Nothing  escapes  his  attention  ;  he  remem 
bers  things  in  their  elements,  their  qualities,  and  peculiarities, 
such  as  form,  size,  and  color.  He  would  make  an  excellent 
judge  of  the  size  of  articles,  and  also  of  their  weight,  by  simple 
observation.  He  has  a  talent  for  natural  science,  especially 


APPENDIX.  269 

ehemisty  and  natural  philosophy.  His  memory,  indicated  by 
the  fulness  in  the  middle  of  the  forehead,  is  enormously  de* 
veloped,  aiding  him  in  retaining  vividly  all  the  impressions  that 
are  worth  recalling. 

"  The  superior  portion  of  the  forehead  is  developed  more 
prominently  in  the  analogical  than  in  the  logical.  His  chief 
intellectual  force  is  in  the  power  to  elucidate  and  make  sub 
jects  clear  ;  hence  he  is  able  to  teach  to  others  whatever  he 
knows  himself. 

"  He  has  the  talent  for  reading  character  ;  hence  he  addresses 
himself  to  each  individual  according  to  his  peculiar  characteris 
tics,  and  reaches  results  in  the  readiest  and  best  way.  His 
language  is  rather  largely  indicated  ;  he  would  be  known  more 
for  specific  compactness  than  for  an  ornate  and  elaborate  style, 
because  he  goes  as  directly  as  possible  from  the  premises  to  the 
conclusion,  and  never  seems  to  forget  the  point  at  issue. 

"  The  side-head  is  well  developed  in  the  region  of  Order, 
Constructiveness,  sense  of  the  beautiful  and  of  the  grand.  It  is 
also  strongly  marked  in  the  region  of  Combativeness  and 
Destructiveness,  which  give  force  and  zealous  earnestness  in  ihe 
prosecution  of  that  which  he  attempts  to  do.  He  is  able  to 
compel  himself  to  be  thorough,  and  to  hold  his  mind  and  his 
efforts  in  the  direction  required  until  he  has  made  himself 
master  of  the  subject.  Industry  is  one  of  his  strong  traits. 

He  is  firm,  positive,  determined,  and  the  middle  of  the  top- 
head  indicates  strong  religious  tendency.  We  seldom  see  so 
large  Veneration  ;  he  is  devout,  respectful  toward  whatever  he 
thinks  sacred,  whether  it  relates  to  religion  or  to  'subordinate 
topics  ;  he  would  reverence  ancient  places  made  memorable  in 
story  and  song  ;  he  is  respectful  to  the  aged,  polite  to  his 
equals,  and  especially  generous  and  friendly  toward  those  who 
are  his  inferiors  in  age  or  culture.  Thus,  young  men  and  even, 
children  have  ready  access  to  him  by  his  invitation  and  permis 
sion.  His  strong  social  affection  makes  his  face  and  his  voice 
a  standing  invitation  toward  confidence,  and  he  has  great  famil 
iarity  in*his  treatment  of  the  young. 

"  His  method  of  studying  subjects  is  instinctive  ;  he  consid 
ers  all  the  facts,  every  condition,  that  will  be  brought  into  ques 
tion,  and  combining  these  by  means  of  his  logical  force,  his 
conclusions  seem  clear,  are  vigorously  stated  and  influential. 
He  has  a  strong  physiognomy  ;  that  broad  and  high  cheek-bone 
indicates  vital  power  ;  that  strong  nose  indicates  determina 
tion,  courage  and  positiveness  ;  the  fulness  of  the  lips  shows 
warmth  of  affection  and  of  sympathy. 


270  APPENDIX. 

"  There  are  few  men  who  are  as  well  adapted  to  comprehend 
the  length  and  depth  and  details  of  business,  and  hold  their 
knowledge  where  it  will  be  ready  for  use  when  it  is  required ; 
hence,  as  a  lawyer  or  statesman,  he  should  be  able  to  impart  to 
people  his  knowledge  effectively  and  exhaustively  whenever  re 
quired.  He  is  naturally  qualified  to  be  master  of  turbulent  men, 
and  to  meet  force  by  force,  and  to  stand  his  ground  in  the 
midst  of  hardships,  difficulties  and  opposition." 


PRESIDENT  ARTHUR'S  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

(From  the  New  York  Times,  September  22^.,  1881.) 

THERE  was  a  quiet  and  impressive  scene  in  the  Capitol  at 
noon,  September  22,  when  President  Arthur  again  took  the  oath 
of  office  and  delivered  a  short  inaugural  address.  The  Presi 
dent  had  arisen  at  7  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  after  breakfast 
had  received  many  callers.  Among  these  were  all  the  members 
of  the  Garfield  Cabinet  and  several  senators  and  representatives. 
The  house  in  which  the  President  is  staying  is  near  the  Capitol 
and  directly  south  of  it.  Only  one  street  and  the  Capitol  grounds 
lie  between  the  dead  chief  magistrate  and  his  living  successor. 
The  arrangements  for  the  second  taking  of  the  oath  had  been 
very  quietly  made,  and  Sergeant-at-Arms  Bright,  of  the  Senate, 
had  been  directed  to  put  in  order  the  Vice-President's  room, 
which  is  just  in  the  rear  of  the  Senate  Chamber.  Members  of 
the  Cabinet,  senators,  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  a  few  other  prominent  persons  had  been  invited  to  attend. 
A  few  minutes  before  12  o'clock  the  President  left  Senator  Jones's 
house,  accompanied  by  ex-President  Grant,  Senator  Jones,  and 
several  members  of  the  Cabinet,  and  was  taken  in  a  carriage  to 
the  basement  entrance  of  the  Senate  wing  of  the  Capitol  on  the 
east  side.  The  corridors  leading  to  the  foot  of  the  private  stair 
case  reserved  for,  the  use  of  Senators  were  deserted,  having  been 
cleared  of  all  persons  who  had  not  been  invited  to  witness  the 
the  ceremony.  The  President  and  his  companions  proceeded  to 
the  Vice-President's  room,  and  in  a  few  minutes  they  were  fol 
lowed  by  others  who  had  been  invited.  First  came  Secretary 
Windom  and  Secretary  Lincoln  and  several  members  of  the 
House.  Secretary  Elaine  and  Gen.  Sherman  in  full  uniform 
were  then  admitted.  The  next  to  come  was  ex-President  Hayes, 
who  was  followed  at  12:10  o'clock  by  Chief-Justice  Waite,  in  his 
judicial  robes,  and  Associate  Justices  Harlan  and  Matthews. 
The  Clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  brought  in  a  small  Bible,  which 


APPENDIX.  271 

be  placed  on  a  table  in  the  centre  of  the  room.  Those  who  were 
present  were  standing  in  little  groups  silently  awaiting  the  cere 
mony. 

Very  soon  after  his  arrival,  Chief- Justice  Waite  advanced  to 
the  side  of  the  President  and  the  spectators  formed  in  a  circle 
around  the  table  near  which  the  President  stood.  The  Chief- 
Justice  raised  the  Bible  from  the  table,  opened  it,  and  passed  it 
to  the  President,  who  placed  his  right  hand  upon  the  printed 
page.  The  Chief- Justice  then  slowly  administered  the  oath, 
with  his  eyes  upon  the  face  of  the  President,  who  kissed  the 
book  and  responded,  "  I  will,  so  help  me  God."  Near  the  Presi 
dent  stood  ex-President  Grant,  looking  down,  with  his  hands 
clasped  behind  him.  At  one  side  were  Secretary  Elaine  and 
Justice  Harlan,  Attorney-General  MacVeagh,  and  Secretary  Lin 
coln.  Facing  the  President,  on  his  right,  was  ex-President 
Hayes,  and  further  away  stood  Senator  John  Sherman,  with 
bowed  head.  On  the  other  side  were  Senators  Edmunds,  Hale, 
Blair,  Dawes,  and  Anthony,  and  Representatives  Amos  Town- 
send,  McCook,  Errett,  Hiscock,  and  Thomas,  ex-Senator  Hamlin, 
Speaker  Randall,  and  others  Speaker  Sharpe  and  Col.  George 
Bliss,  of  New  York,  were  also  present. 

As  soon  as  the  oath  had  been  administered  the  Chief-Justice 
retired  from  the  table  and  took  a  place  in  the  circle  of  spectators. 
The  President  then  drew  from  the  inner  pocket  of  his  coat  a  roll 
of  manuscript  and  read  the  following  address  : 

"  For  the  fourth  time  in  the  history  of  the  Republic  its  chief 
magistrate  has  been  removed  by  death.  All  hearts  are  filled  with 
grief  and  horror  at  the  hideous  crime  which  has  darkened  our 
land,  and  the  memory  of  the  murdered  President,  his  protracted 
sufferings,  his  unyielding  fortitude,  the  example  and  achieve 
ments  of  his  life  and  the  pathos  of  his  death  will  forever  illumine 
the  pages  of  our  history.  For  the  fourth  time  the  officer 
elected  by  the  people  and  ordained  by  the  Constitution  to  fill  a 
vacancy  so  created  is  called  to  assume  the  Executive  chair.  The 
wisdom  of  .our  fathers,  foreseeing  even  the  most  dire  possibilities, 
made  sure  that  the  Government  should  never  be  imperiled  be 
cause  of  the  uncertainty  of  human  life.  Men  may  die,  but  the 
fabric  of  our  free  institutions  remains  unshaken.  No  higher  or 
more  assuring  proof  could  exist  of  the  strength  and  permanence 
of  popular  government  than  the  fact  that,  though  the  chosen  of 
the  people  be  struck  down,  his  constitutional  successor  is  peace 
fully  installed  without  shock  or  strain,  except  the  sorrow  which 
mourns  the  bereavement.  All  the  noble  aspirations  of  my 
lamented  predecessor  which  found  expression  in  his  life,  the 


272  APPENDIX. 

measure  devised  and  suggested  during  his  brief  administration 
to  correct  abuses  and  enforce  economy,  to  advance  prosperity  and 
promote  the  general  welfare,  to  insure  domestic  security  and 
maintain  friendly  and  honorable  relations  with  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  will  be  garnered  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  it  will  be 
my  earnest  endeavor  to  profit  and  to  see  that  the  nation  shall 
profit  by  his  example  and  experience.  Prosperity  blesses  our 
country ;  our  fiscal  policy  as  fixed  by  law  is  well  grounded  and 
generally  approved  ;  no  threatening  issue  mars  our  foreign  inter 
course,  and  the  wisdom,  integrity,  and  thrift  of  our  people  may 
be  trusted  to  continue  undisturbed  the  present  assured  career  of 
peace,  tranquillity,  and  welfare.  The  gloom  and  anxiety  which 
have  enshrouded  the  country  must  make  repose  especially  wel 
come  now.  No  demand  for  speedy  legislation  has  been  heard; 
no  adequate  occasion  is  apparent  for  an  unusual  session  of  Con 
gress.  The  Constitution  defines  the  functions  and  powers  of  the 
Executive  as  clearly  as  those  of  either  of  the  other  two  departments 
of  the  Government,  and  he  must  answer  for  the  just  exercise  of  the 
discretion  it  permits  and  the  performance  of  the  duties  it  imposes. 
Summoned  to  these  high  duties  and  responsibilities,  and  pro 
foundly  conscious  of  their  magnitude  and  gravity,  I  assume  the 
trust  imposed  by  the  Constitution,  relying  for  aid  on  Divine 
guidance  and  the  virtue,  patriotism,  and  intelligence  of  the 
American  people.'' 

At  times  his  voice  trembled,  but  his  manner  was  dignified  and 
impressive,  and  when  he  referred  to  the  Administration  of  his 
predecessor  and  his  intention  to  profit  by  his  example,  he  raised 
his  eyes  from  the  manuscript  and  spoke  directly  to  his  hearers. 
While  he  was  reading  many  eyes  were  moistened  with  tears. 


PRESIDENT  ARTHUR'S  FIRST  PROCLAMATION. 

SEPTEMBER  22d,  1881. 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America  : 
A  PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  in  His  inscrutable  wisdom,  it  has  pleased  God  to 
remove  from  us  the  illustrious  head  of  the  nation,  James  A.  Gar- 
field,  late  President  of  the  United  States;  and 

Whereas,  it  is  fitting  that  the  deep  grief  which  fills  all  hearts 
should  manifest  itself  with  one  accord  toward  the  throne  of 
Infinite  Grace,  and  that  we  should  bow  before  the  Almighty  and 


APPENDIX.  273 

seek  from  Him  that  consolation  in  our  affliction  and  that  sancti- 
fication  of  our  loss  which  He  is  able  and  willing  to  vouchsafe; 

Now,  therefore,  in  obedience  to  sacred  duty,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  desire  of  the  people,  I,  Chester  A.  Arthur,  President  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  do  hereby  appoint  Monday  next, 
the  26th  day  of  September,  on  which  day  the  remains  of  our 
honored  and  beloved  dead  will  be  consigned  to  their  last  resting- 
place  on  earth,  to  be  observed  throughout  the  United  States  as  a 
day  of  humiliation  and  mourning ;  and  I  earnestly  recommend 
all  the  people  to  assemble  on  that  day  in  their  respective  places 
of  divine  worship,  there  to  render  alike  their  tribute  of  sorrowful 
submission  to  the  will  of  Almighty  God  and  of  reverence  and 
love  for  the  memory  and  character  of  our  late  chief  magistrate. 

In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington  the  22d  day  of  September,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  1881,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United 
States  the  one  hundred  and  sixth.  CHESTER  A.  ARTHUR. 

By  the  President : 

[Seal.]    JAMES  G.  ELAINE,  Secretary  of  State. 


HOW  MOTHER  GARFIELD  BORE  HER  AFFLICTION. 

(From  the  New  York  Times.) 

CLEVELAND.  September  22. — The  mother  of  the  late  President 
is  by  nature  far  from  demonstrative,  and  the  many  distorted 
utterances  of  hers  which  appeared  in  the  newspapers  during  the 
campaign,  and  especially  since  the  assassination,  do  her  great 
injustice.  That  she  should  have  a  mother's  pride  in  her  son 
would  be  natural,  but  of  his  achievements  she  is  not  free  to  speak. 
She  loves  dearly  to  converse  about  him,  even  since  the  great 
calamity,  but  always  prefers  to  listen.  A  correspondent  culled 
at  the  house  this  afternoon.  Hearing  of  his  presence,  she  entered 
the  room  as  soon  as  she  was  at  liberty,  and  made  timid  inquiry 
about  the  funeral  preparations.  She  listened  eagerly  to  every 
thing  that  was  said,  and  the  effort  did  not  seem  to  tire  her. 
Occasionally  a  mention  of  some  little  act  of  delicate  courtesy  on 
the  part  of  the  people  would  touch  her  heart,  and  a  tear  would 
glisten  in  her  eye.  and  reveal  the  feelings  with  which  her  mother's 
heart  is  rent.  She  will  sit  quietly  by  the  window  and  read  the 
paper  for  an  hour  at  a  time.  Then,  unable  longer  to  choke  down 


274 


APPENDIX. 


MKS.  ELIZA  BALLOU  GARFIELD, 

Mother  of  President  James  A.    Garfield. 


the  swelling  sorrow,  as  some  incident  touches  her  heart,  she  will 
lay  aside  the  paper  and  sit  alone  in  silence,  lier  thoughts  busied 
with  the  dead  past.  She  sits  there  uncomplaining,  meek,  patient, 
living  over  the  past  and  seeking  to  comprehend  the  meaning  of 
her  own  affliction.  Then  the  members  of  the  family  address  her 
and  seek  to  divert  her  mind,  and,  with  a  weary  smile  that  is 
more  eloquent  than  the  tears  she  seeks  to  restrain,  she  turns  and 
tries  to  hide  from  others  the  suffering  which  she  knows  must  be 
contagious. 


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